Welcome Home
by Elithay
Summary: Post DH. This sort of follows what happens when Remus dies and re-unites with the others. Slightly corny at times but still good. Edited 7/20/11 SiriusxRemus
1. Reunion

Spoilers for DH(though if any of that is still a shock, I don't even know.) This is my take on how Remus died and what might have immediately happened after his arrival in 'Dead Land' as I have dubbed it. It's a tad sad at parts, but there is some humor thrown in there. Anyway, I own nothing! This story was planted in my head via an icon, (the last line is what it said), so not even that belongs to me...So don't sue me! Read, review, and hopefully enjoy!

a/n 7/20/11: I know it's been about a billion years since I've updated but I still think about this sometimes. I decided I'm going to do some minor editing and see if I can inspire myself to write more. I saw DH p.2 so maybe that might knock something loose. Anyway, that's about it, so please enjoy what I have so far!

Welcome Home

Remus Lupin ran through the corridors of Hogwarts trying to remember the last place he had seen Harry. This was a particularly difficult task as he was also trying to doge hexes and curses along the way. He jumped to the side as a piece of the hallway started to collapse behind him, courtesy of the giants.

Remus dodged yet another spell by the Death Eaters and quickly slipped into another hallway. Not that he wanted to admit it, but he was scared. Scared for Harry, scared for his friends, scared for his former students, and...scared for his wife.

Remus cursed as that last thought hit him. He had told her to stay home, stay safe. He didn't want his son to grow up parentless. He had hoped that even if he died, which he wasn't planning on, Teddy would still have a mother. He didn't want him growing up alone, like Harry.

He was suddenly drawn back into his task at that last thought. Harry. He had to find him, to keep him safe. He had already lost all of his best friends; he didn't want to let down James by letting his only son die.

Another burst of light barely missed him, this one green. Remus paled slightly. Even though he had known they would all be out to kill tonight, to acknowledge the death around him made him start to lose hope. Rounding another corner he stopped suddenly, frozen at the sight in front of him.

Had he not been so preoccupied by his chosen task he had not even thought of the possibility of running into one of his thoughts, namely his wife. He watched in horror for a couple of seconds as she stood in a duel with a Death Eater. Remus was drawn back into the thick of the battle as yet another spell flew at him. Dragging his eyes from the scene in front of him he finally turned to fire return spells at his attackers. He winced as a mild hex struck him on the arm.

His attention was suddenly drawn back to his wife's duel when he heard her scream. She had been struck by a cutting curse and was currently trying to avoid other spells while trying to stop the bleeding on her shoulder. It seemed like things were going in slow motion as he ran towards her. Time seemed to almost stop as he saw the green light coming towards her.

As he threw himself in the way of the Killing Curse his last thoughts rested on his son. His son, Teddy, he didn't want to have to grow up alone. The green light engulfed his vision and he never heard her scream his name.

xXx

Remus winced as he opened his eyes. Everything was so bright; a pure white light seemed to be emanating from all around the room. As his vision cleared a little he began to see the finer details of the room.

He could immediately tell it was a classroom, the tables, chairs and teachers' desk gave that away. As he stood up he realized he had been lying in the front of the classroom, in front of a chalkboard. The chalkboard had writing on it. As Remus read what it said he started smiling. This was obviously his classroom, meant especially for the werewolf.

Remus paused a minute, thinking. Yes, this room was meant for him, but someone would have had to have known him and known that he would be coming here, wherever here was. He lingered on that thought. He should know where this was. It was blatantly obvious to him, though he didn't want to admit to himself that he really was dead.

'Dead. Yes, that's it, I'm dead. This must be the place people go when they die.' Remus thought as he examined the room more thoroughly. He noticed some things that never could have possibly been real in, well, real life. 'But, if I'm dead, which I am, that would mean there has to be other people here.'

As he thought this he turned toward the door that had just appeared. He grinned a little. 'Just like magic,' he thought, but then grew a little more serious, wondering what was going to happen now.

Remus tensed as the door slowly opened. He held his hand up to shield his eyes from the pure white light that had just invaded the room. His eyes still hadn't adjusted when he was engulfed in a hug.

"Remus, Remus, Remus!" James yelled as he squeezed his friend. "It's been so long! Not to say that I'm...happy that you're dead...but still!" he released his death grip and pushed him back to take a look at his shell-shocked friend.

Remus stood there shocked. He was, well, to say he was _just_ shocked would be an understatement. After a few moments he finally got a small amount of control over his mouth. "James...you-I. Uh, hello?" he managed to stutter.

James just gave him a grin, though it was slightly toned down. "Yes, hello to you too. We have a lot of catching up to do. Lily is outside. I think she wanted to give us a little time to...adjust to the situation." There was the sheepish grin Remus had come to associate with James all those years ago.

"Well, why hasn't she come in yet? It would be nice to see her again." Remus said, still slightly overwhelmed with the situation.

James chuckled a little and replied, "She has to talk a certain someone into coming too. This someone is very nervous about seeing you again, you know."

"Sirius?" Remus questioned, disbelievingly, "I thought...so he really is dead. I had always tried to hope that there was a way to get him out of that curtain...back to Harry," he suddenly winced, realizing he was talking to Harry's_ father_, the man who hadn't gotten to see his son grow up.

James seemed to sense Remus' discomfort and tried to dismiss the subject, they could talk about it some other time. In the meantime he said, "Yes, Sirius. He's not sure if he's happy to see you or not, the prat."

Remus grinned again, feeling the tension going away, "Well, if he's not going to come in here, I'm just going to have to go and get him myself!"

He started walking toward the door determinedly, James following closely behind him. Even if Remus couldn't see his face, he could still tell James was grinning like a loon. Remus' pace faltered a bit as he got to the last few steps before the door. He stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, let it out and walked out the door.

Once again Remus was unkindly blinded by the stupid pure white light, but this time he recovered sooner rather than later. When he finished blinking the last few spots from his eyes he saw what he was expecting, but yet was still shocked to see.

Lily stood a few feet from the entrance to the classroom, with her hands locked around Sirius' arm trying to pull him toward the door. They hadn't noticed his appearance so they were still arguing.

"Just go and see him! It's not like he'll be mad at you for being happy to see him!" Lily said, still pulling determinedly at his arm, but Sirius was still resisting.

"No! I'll go when I want to, I mean, when I feel I can. Stop pressuring me!" whined Sirius, shooting Lily an exasperated look.

"And I said you should see him. You'd better hurry up before he comes and gets you himself!" Lily said defiantly, giving his arm another firm yank.

"Too late, that already happened." James grinned as the two jumped and gave him a dirty look for startling them. Their attention was immediately diverted, though, as Remus gave a little cough.

"Um, hello. It's nice to see you both." Remus blushed a little as they stared at him in shock.

Lily was the first to recover and said, "It's nice to see you too, Remus. We have a lot of catching up to do, and all the time in the, um, world," she gave him bright, but slightly lopsided grin which he returned.

Remus' attention shifted to Sirius as the other man shifted nervously, unsure of what to say. Finally he spoke, "I missed you, Moony. Even though it's only been a couple years it seems like so much more than that," he shrugged and looked sheepish, "I feel like a spoiled brat. Here I am, happy that you're here and not even giving a thought as to what happened for you to be here.."

Remus smiled at the use of the nickname and said quietly, "I missed you too, Padfoot." He merely shrugged at the mention of his death, the initial shock already wearing off. "As to how I got here, I'll probably tell you all later, but I truly am happy to see you all again."

He was suddenly engulfed in a group hug courtesy of his friends. He smiled and chuckled a little, the rest of the group following his lead. As they all backed away to really get a good look at each other Sirius caught Remus' eyes.

Taking a deep, hopefully calming, breath Sirius stated the hardest words he had thought to say to his friend. "Messrs. Padfoot and Prongs would like to welcome Mr. Moony home."

xXx

End Chapter One

So, there it is? Love it? Hate it? Indifferent to it? Please let me know. Thank you for reading!

Also another note: This works as a oneshot as it was originally going to be one. If you don't feel like torturing yourself waiting I would suggest only reading the first chapter. If you're a glutton for punishment or don't mind waiting forever go ahead and read the rest, and please enjoy!


	2. The First Day

This is the second chapter out of I'm not sure how many. This will have a slightly meandering plot line and will take place in Dead Land. For the moment everyone is still trying find out what's going on in the real world. Let the chaos reign!

**The First Day**

Remus sighed as he walked through the mist of Dead Land. He had started calling it that during his first day of being dead. Needless to say he had been startled when Harry had called him, James, Lily and Sirius' spirits temporarily back to the land of living after only a few short hours of death. He had been even more startled by Harry's first question once they had gotten there. "Does it hurt to die?"

On impulse Remus had wanted to say, 'It depends on the way', but had stopped himself just in time. Instead someone else had replied that it didn't. Remus stopped in his stroll as he mulled this reply over.

'You only die once, right?' he thought, 'so I'm not sure. Three of the four of us had been Avada Kedavra'd so we at least know that doesn't hurt. Sirius fell behind the curtain and he hadn't said anything to contradict them, so I guess I'll never know.'

Remus shrugged again and continued on his walk. He was so lost in his other thoughts that he didn't hear anyone sneaking up behind him.

"Remus!" cried Sirius as he attacked him from behind.

"Sirius! Sheesh, warn me before you do that." Remus pushed his friend off and looked at him and said, with all mock seriousness, "You almost killed me."

They kept straight faces for all of four seconds before they dissolved into laughter. After they recovered they started walking again.

Remus shook his head at the wonder of it all. No matter where he was, and even if he didn't know where _he _was they always knew where to find him. It bugged him sometimes when he was trying to find them and they always found him first. This time Sirius had found him on his way to James and Lily's house.

He had wanted to talk to them since after Harry called them, but hadn't had the chance. As he neared their home he felt his anxiety rise. He wanted to talk to them, but at the same time he didn't. It felt like he was telling everyone he was going to be a father all over again. Anxious anticipation; he hadn't felt that in awhile.

Sirius seemed to sense his discomfort and started joking around with him. When he did something particularly stupid and got a smile out of his friend he felt relieved. He had started to worry about him.

Even though James had said there was no need to knock the ever-polite Remus felt weird walking into a house without knocking. He opened the door and walked in slowly. He was in a small entrance hall leading to a fairly larger living room with couches and a couple chairs. To his dismay he saw that Lily and James were already sitting, seeming to know he was going to come talk to them.

"Hello," James said as Remus and Sirius came into the living room, "We were expecting you."

Remus gave him a lopsided smile as Sirius flopped down in a chair and he sat himself, "You always seem to know when I'm coming."

"Well, that's because we do. Know you're coming that is."

"Yes, it seems so, but why?" Remus asked, his curiosity getting the best of him for the moment.

James looked surprised and said, "Haven't we told you already? We're the Keepers of this Death Time Zone."

"Keepers? Death Time Zone?" Remus asked, becoming more confused by the minute. His earlier reason for coming was now forcefully pushed to the back of his mind.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "So we really _haven't_ told you?" when Remus shook his head no he sighed. "Well, it seems we've failed in our duty to keep you well informed," he paused a moment thinking. "Lily, why don't you explain to him? I'm no good at this sort of thing."

She rolled her eyes but complied anyway, "The Keepers take care of happenings in this Zone of death. We welcome people, make places to stay, and re-unite them with dead friends and relatives," she paused helping Remus absorb this information. "Death Time Zones are the boundaries that divide places and times of death from each other. For example this Time Zone is set from 2 years before you died to 8 years in the future. The boundaries accepted here is a 100mile radius from Hogwarts."

There was more silence as Remus absorbed this information in full. After a few minutes Remus finally responded. "Well," he said slowly," I guess that makes sense. After all, with all the people who die there should be some sort of order," he then paused, looking at Sirius, "Wait, if you didn't die there why are you here?"

Sirius grinned wolfishly. "I was transferred," he said with a smirk, "Apparently it was too much for my Zone to handle."

They chuckled at Sirius' antics. Remus could see how he could be too much for them. The only one who could control a marauder was another marauder.

After they had all stopped laughing their conversation descended into small talk. What had happened since they had died and what they had been doing in Dead Land. Remus had already told them of some things that had happened since they died, but he then remembered what he had come for in the first place. He started to tactfully turn the conversation towards his teaching career at Hogwarts. He was successful.

"Yes, classes were a bit of a handful that year, but it did have some highlights." Remus paused for a second seeing the perfect opportunity arise, "Did you Sirius tell you that Harry's patronus is a stag?"

"No," James said slowly, "He didn't." He looked at Sirius who shrugged.

"I wanted the man who taught him the charm to tell you himself," he gave a mock bow and said, "I just didn't know we'd be seeing him so soon."

Remus gave a sheepish smile and said, "Well, I didn't either, but anyway," he collected himself, "Since we're talking about Harry, what did you think about yesterday?"

Lily cleared her throat, "It...it was nice to see him. It had been a couple of years."

When Sirius and Remus raised their eyebrows she explained, "When Voldemort first returned we discovered him and Harry had brother wands. We quickly gathered the victims of Voldemort and we came out and helped Harry the best we could," she smiled at their astonishment.

James smiled also, "We _had_ been wanting to talk to you about it, but since you just died and all we weren't sure if you were really ready for it."

"Well, I'm still not sure if I'm ready for it, but I want to talk about it. My biggest worry was _why_ Harry wanted to know if death hurt."

The whole group frowned at that question. Apparently the others had been wondering about that too. Suddenly Sirius looked up from where he had been trying to burn a hole through the carpet with his eyes.

"Wait a minute, didn't you guys get a death notice that was suddenly recalled for no apparent reason?" Sirius suddenly questioned James.

A look of horror filled his face, "You don't mean...?"

"You think it might've been Harry?" Remus asked, slightly disturbed.

Lily had a pained look on her face, "I'm almost sure of it. I felt something familiar in the preferred arrangement. The notice was recalled before I could get all the way to the name. That either means they decided it wasn't his time or he died outside our boundaries."

There was a tense silence. "Is there any way to check?" asked Remus suddenly.

"I'm not sure." Lily answered, "There's never been any reason for us to check before."

"No, there is a way," Sirius interrupted, "Someone else did it in my old Zone. Apparently you have to know a ghost from your Death Time in the area and they are the ones that will be able to find the information for you."

"So, are there any ghosts in this Zone that we might know?" Remus asked anxiously.

"None that I can think of. Here," James said walking into another room and grabbing a box, "Here are the Death Notices. I think I put all the ghosts in this folder."

Remus grabbed the folder and sat down. Everyone watched him shuffle through the papers. They became slightly worried as he got to the last few sheets. They were startled when there was a small cry and the sound of papers falling to the floor.

"What is it?" Sirius asked his now ghostly pale friend.

Remus handed over the paper that had so affected him. "Nymphandora Tonks-Lupin. Place of Death: Hogwarts, time: 9:34pm. Wish after death: Become a Hogwarts ghost. Wish approved."

"Tonks-Lupin?" questioned Lily. "Is that the energetic girl that could change her hair color?"

"Yes." Remus said, some of the shock wearing off, now replaced by sadness. "We were just married last year. Have a baby too. Teddy Lupin, about a month old." He said with sad pride.

James smiled sadly, sensing his thoughts. "Don't worry. I'm sure there will be someone besides cruel muggles to take him in." he tried to smile.

"Yes, I'm sure his grandmother will take care of him." Remus took a deep, calming breath. "Well, now that we have an accomodating ghost, what do we do?"

xXx

End Chapter Two

Mission 'Find Out What Happened to Harry' has begun! This chapter was kind of meandery, but from here on we have a slightly more set goal...for now. So, tell me what you think and I promise to finish this story! Eventually! Very eventually ; w ;


	3. To Contact a Ghost

Here's Chapter Three. Don't really have much to say, so please read and enjoy!

**To Contact a Ghost**

Sirius and Remus walked toward Dumbledores house slowly. Remus had been slightly surprised to discover the old man was staying so close to him. Now that he thought about it, it kind of made sense, seeing as he had died in the school like himself. It was only natural they'd be in the same Zone.

Yesterday after Sirius had explained all he knew of contacting ghosts James had suggested that they should go to a library. Remus had been startled by James suggestion, he couldn't remember a time in which he had willingly suggested they go to the library, other than the times he was stalking Lily in school. He had looked around and when he saw Lily's smug smirk he had understood.

'She has him trained,' he thought, smiling.

As they neared Dumbledore's library/home they could see a large old-fashioned gate and pillars on the front porch. Remus chuckled when he saw the sign hung above the door. 'Library Open!' it practically screamed.

When they neared the door it opened revealing a short hallway and rows upon rows of bookshelves. Sirius closed the door behind them and they walked toward the room. As soon as they got to the first bookshelf a person stepped out in front of them.

"Hello Remus," Dumbledore smiled, "I've been expecting you and Sirius any minute now."

Remus briefly pondered if Dumbledore was some kind of higher up dead person, but dismissed it almost immediately. He had always seemed to know where people were going in life, why shouldn't he keep that uncanny ability in death?

"Hello Albus." Sirius greeted, stepping forward and beckoning Remus to follow. "We were wondering if you could help us with something."

"Yes, well, if you're looking for books you've come to the right place." Dumbledore smiled, "I have taken the liberty of picking out a few myself."

Remus and Sirius exchanged a look and walked over to the table he had gestured at. On the table were two stacks of books. Remus picked up the first one on the closest pile.

"Dead Connections: Contacting Your Ghostly Friend," he read and raised an eyebrow. "Is this really going to help?"

"We won't know until we try," said Sirius with a sigh and sat down. "Come on Moony, let's get started."

xXx

Six hours, one nap, fifteen cups of tea, and thousands of pages later Remus finally thought he had found their first really important piece of information.

"Hey Padfoot, look at this," he called to Sirius.

"What is it?" Sirius groaned and grabbed at the book.

"This," Remus said and pointed to the title of a chapter, "The Dead Side of Life: Communication Across Planes of Death."

"Well, yes, that does sound interesting, but can we please go home?" Sirius gave him his best puppy-dog eyes. "Why don't you just go ask the old man if you can borrow it? If you really want to we can come back tomorrow, but not before noon."

Remus sighed, a protest on the tip of his tongue. "All right," he conceded, "but we _are_ coming back tomorrow."

Sirius reluctantly agreed, and after getting permission to borrow that book and a few more they began their trek back to their apartment.

After the first day of being dead they had decided that Sirius should stay at Remus' house. It was set up like a studio apartment with the classroom on the bottom and living quarters on top. The staircase was in the office. Before Remus had died he had been staying with Lily and James, but they had decided it would be a little too quiet for Remus all alone so now Sirius stayed in one of the extra rooms.

When they got home Remus set down all the books on the coffee table and went to make tea. Sirius had said he was going to get James and Lily to help them look through all the information they had gathered. He had said he would be back in about a half hour. Remus wasn't going to let that time go to waste.

xXx

After James, Lily and Sirius had arrived they had gotten a lot more information. In addition to the book Remus had originally looked at there were also more detailed books on the subject of communicating with ghosts.

"An Ouija Board? I've heard of the living contacting the dead with one, but not the dead contacting the dead!" Sirius said incredulously.

"Well, I guess it would work, but how would we get one?" asked Remus.

"Are you seriously considering this option?" asked Sirius, giving Remus a weird look.

"It's the easiest one we've found so far. I mean, look at this one," he pointed, "We need a young woman's saliva! Where are we going to get that?" at the look he got from Lily he faltered. "Not saying you're not young, but I think it means 13-18, not 20 plus."

Her glare lessened and she sighed, "All right. The Ouija Board does seem like our best option for now, but I think we should also prepare for this one," she pointed to another paragraph, "just in case."

Remus pulled the book to him and looked it over. "Yes, it doesn't seem that complicated. I vote we should do what Lily says."

Sirius and James agreed, rolling their eyes. Lily and Remus had always been the smart ones.

"So, is this all for tonight? I kind of want to get to bed." James said.

His comment made everyone look at the clock. It was about to strike midnight. The rest of the group was startled, it hadn't seemed like it was that late.

Lily and James got their stuff together and prepared to go. "Don't stay up too late," Lily warned, "I hear you're going back to Dumbledores tomorrow for another day of research."

"Yeah, that's what he thinks," said Sirius, "I personally think we have enough information and just need to find the things we need...like an Ouija Board," he shook his head.

Remus gave him a look. "Yes, at least_ I_ am going back tomorrow, no matter what Sirius says." He laughed when Sirius stuck his tongue out at him, "You never now what Albus may have laying around!"

They said their goodbyes and waved as Lily and James started home.

"You really think the old coot has everything we're looking for?" Sirius asked as they got ready for bed.

"I don't see why not, he always did in life, why not in death?" Remus replied and went back to stack the books.

"I get what you're saying, but I have a feeling there's something you're not telling me." Sirius gave him a sidelong glance.

Remus gave him half a smile. "Maybe I know something, maybe I don't. Even I won't know until tomorrow."

Sirius sighed. "Well, I guess that means I will have to go with you."

Remus' smile grew and he said, "I guess it does," he moved to his doorway and turned around, "Goodnight Padfoot."

"'Night Moony." Sirius said, and closed the door.

xXx

End Chapter Three.


	4. Talks

Here's chapter 4. Man, editing this I barely remember what's happening. Guess it's a good thing I'm re-reading it then.

**Talks**

Sirius yawned as he sat at the table. Despite his protesting and saying that Remus had promised they wouldn't go before noon they had ended up at Dumbledores house by eleven. Sirius had grumbled even more at the unfairness of it all as Remus enthusiastically went through room after room of books and ingredients, Sirius gloomily following behind.

By the time they had gotten back to a table they both were laden with all types of things to sort through. One of their most startling discoveries, at least in Sirius' opinion, was in fact an Ouija Board. He was actually surprised that he had not expected the ex-headmaster to have something so completely random and seemingly useless in his possession. Sirius shook his head at the insanity of it all.

At the moment Remus was eagerly looking at the potion they had found the night before. As they had thought, it wasn't too extremely complicated, but did seem to require certain finesse.

Thinking of what Remus had said last night Sirius began to ponder. He had said that there might be something worth finding out today, but he wasn't sure. Now they were talking about potions. It all didn't sit too well with the man.

He shot a wary glance at Remus, but his friend was still too caught up in what he was doing. He continued staring, hoping that the werewolves' extra senses would kick in and he wouldn't have to say anything. Luckily for him after a couple minutes he got the reaction he was kind of looking for.

"What is it Sirius?" Remus asked without looking up.

Sirius shook his head in amusement, "I was wondering when you were going to enlighten me on what you thought was so amusing last night."

Remus finally looked up, "Well, I was kind of hoping that he would have showed up by now, seeing as we are looking at his favorite subject."

"What are you-" Sirius started to question before he stopped, his eyes widening, "No! Not him. You can't mean-"

"Why yes, he does mean me." drawled a sickeningly familiar voice.

"Snape." Sirius said turning around with a slight growl. He knew that the man had always been on their side, but something about him had always rubbed him the wrong way.

Remus sent Sirius a warning look. "Behave." he said, and then turning to Snape, "Hello Severus, it has been awhile."

"Yes it has." the potions master said with a slight sneer. "I was hoping that it would've been longer, but death goes on."

Sirius snorted without meaning to and said, "Well, it happens to the best of us!" he cowered a little at the glares sent his way.

Shaking his head in disdain Snape walked over to where their notes were laid out. After quickly looking them over he raised his eyebrows and said, "A communication potion? Why would you need one; And particularly one of this strength?"

"Well, actually this is only a last resort. As to why we want one in the first place, I might tell you later." Remus shrugged noncommittally.

"I see." said Snape. "Am I privy to the knowledge of who this 'we' would be? Besides you and the mutt, of course." Sirius growled at his comment.

"James, Lily, Sirius and I are the ones who were looking to use it." Remus said, still trying to be polite. "I was wondering though, if you would be so kind as to brew this for us." he pushed the paper with directions and ingredients toward the man from where he had set it down.

Snape paused for a minute, seeming to consider his options and the possible reactions if he refused. He finally picked up the paper. "It has been a while since I have had the pleasure of having someone in my debt. I will do this on the condition that, if this works, you will tell me who you were contacting and why."

Remus looked pained for a moment before he stuck out his hand to shake on it. "All right, I guess it's a deal then."

xXx

Sirius sat pouting on the couch. Once they had gotten home he had tried to talk to Remus but he had been 'too busy.' Sirius sent a glare at the man sitting across from him looking through even more books than they had yesterday.

Finally he sighed and uncrossed his arms. "Would you care to tell me why you are looking through more books now that we know what we are doing?"

Remus looked up but didn't reply right away. He sat staring into Sirius's eyes and finally sighed, seeing that he wasn't going to win. "I want to make sure we have all the possibilities. I don't want to spend a long time doing something that could be done with little to no preparation."

"But Moony!" Sirius said exasperatedly, "We have all of us working on it, plus Snape who, even though I really don't want to admit it, is a big help. He didn't say that there would be anything wrong with it, so why are you still worrying?"

"I don't really know. I just have a weird feeling about this." he said quietly.

"I don't see why you would be feeling weird about this." Sirius said and then a look of understanding crossed his features. "Could it be that you're not sure you really want to do this." when Remus looked away he knew he had gotten it right. "Why? You do seem to be truly worried about Harry, so I don't think that's it, but then what-" he paused suddenly. "It's Tonks, isn't it?"

Remus nodded slowly and looked up into Sirius's eyes. "It's not that I don't _want_ to see her, it's just going to be kind of weird. We had been married about a year, you know, so it's not Tonks anymore."

"Yeah, but it's weird calling her something else. I think Nymphandora is too much of a mouthful anyway, and whenever someone says 'Lupin' people think of you."

Remus chuckled. He did know how that worked. "I guess that's true." he looked at the clock. "It's almost time for dinner. James and Lily invited us over, remember?" he said, abruptly ending the subject.

Sirius just smiled, knowing that he would just have to talk to him again later and there was something that he wasn't telling them. "I know," he replied, "I was just about to remind you it was getting late, but you beat me to it."

xXx

After they had eaten the group moved into the sitting room to discuss what had happened that day. James and Lily had been more surprised than one would have thought being the Keepers of the Zone would be to find out that Severus was now a resident.

Their reactions couldn't have been more opposite. James had cursed and bemoaned the fact that his school time rival was even now ruining his life, never mind the fact that they were both dead now.

Lily was ecstatic; she had had time to forgive the man from all those years ago and now wanted to go over and talk to him and see what had happened in his life.

There was complete silence for a moment as the husband and wife paused to consider their companions point of view. Remus and Sirius could only sit there and try not to smile as the couple began to argue.

"How can you still hold on to that petty rivalry after all these years?" asked Lily glaring at James.

"Easily!" James replied, "How could you forgive that, that _idiot_ after what he did?"

"It was a long time ago!" she said forcefully, "You're just showing how immature you are by not forgiving him!" at this Lily also looked at Sirius, who put his hands up in a defensive manner.

"Hey, leave me out of this," he pleaded, and Remus tried hard not to chuckle.

"Yes well, this would be an entertaining conversation to continue," he received glares, "I think we should work this out because we're all going to see him tomorrow to get the potion he's making for us."

"Do we all have to go?" whined James.

"Yes, we do." Lily replied before Remus could say anything. "So you all better behave yourselves." She sent glares at James and Sirius.

"Hey!" Sirius protested, "I've already seen him! I can handle myself, right Moony?" Remus nodded, amused.

James threw Lily a disgusted look, "I can be a civilized person when I feel like it," he stood up, "but there's no guarantee I will want to be tomorrow. Anyway, it's getting late, and everyone should go home and go to bed. We'll probably need energy for tomorrow." he wandered off into the hallway that led upstairs.

Lily shook her head. "No manners at all. I hope Harry didn't end up like that." she glanced at Remus and he shook his head, indicating that Harry did indeed have manners. She sighed and said, "Well, I guess we all should go to bed. I would see you home, but it's too late. Good night." she said and went in the same direction as her husband.

Remus and Sirius called a belated goodbye after her and headed home. Once they got there they got ready for bed. After they had said goodnight they lay in separate rooms, but neither could sleep.

Sirius was mulling over his earlier thoughts and conversation with Remus about Tonks.

Remus was also thinking along the same lines, but was also worrying about other things as well. He sighed and turned over in bed to look at his clock. It read 2:12am. He groaned. Remus could feel this was going to be yet another almost sleepless night.

xXx

End Chapter Four


	5. Ouija Board

Haha, oh man. The a/n that I used to have for this chapter. Done by my birthday, yeaaaah no.

**Ouija Board**

Remus yawned and sat up in bed. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he must have at some time. He stretched and looked over to the clock and froze. The numbers said 11:03. After his moment of petrificus totalis left him he jumped out of bed cursing and rushed to get ready.

Sirius yawned as he shuffled into the hall to see what was upsetting Remus so badly. He paused in shock as he saw the man running around the house pulling on his shirt and gathering books. Sirius stared in wonder for only a moment before he burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

Remus looked into the hall to see Sirius on the floor laughing at him. He sighed and rolled his eyes at his crazy friend. He then continued to get ready, but this time at a much more sedate pace. Sirius eventually picked himself up off the floor and began to get ready too.

After they both were almost ready to go Remus decided to give Sirius a little talk about what they were going to be doing.

"It'll be all right Moony, we know what we're doing." Sirius said and tried to push his friend out the door while rolling his eyes.

"Are we sure, though? What if we did something wrong? We should look over it one more time!" Remus began to dig in his heels and Sirius cursed his inhuman strength. He sighed deeply and flipped him around so they were facing each other and held onto his shoulders.

"Remus," he said and looked down into the slightly shorter mans eyes, "It will be o.k. We looked over this a million and one times. There isn't anything that we may have missed, even if we did miss something, by some small chance, I'm positive that it wasn't anything harmful. You just need to calm down and it will be fine."

Remus closed his eyes for a moment and when he looked back at Sirius his eyes showed his determination. "I know Sirius. The only thing wrong is my reluctance to face what I left behind. It will be ok, because we will make it that way."

"That's exactly what I've been saying the whole time. Now let's go before James and Lily come and yell at us for being late." Sirius said, glad that his friend seemed to be doing better.

Remus looked around Sirius to the clock on their wall and stifled a curse. It was almost time to be at Dumbledores house. He supposed that they would just have to go there and hope that James and Lily were already there.

They rushed out the door and ran to Dumbledores house. As they neared they saw people standing outside. They soon distinguished the shapes as everyone who was supposed to be there but them. Sirius cursed when he saw Severus standing there with a smug look on his face. They slowed to a walk to catch their breath and when they stopped by the gate Remus started to apologize.

"I'm sorry, we both slept in and so far I haven't seen any alarm clocks in Dead Land," he winced as he realized he had said that last part out loud.

"Dead Land?" questioned Severus, "Wait, I don't want to know. Let us just be done with this," he held out a vial of potion, "Here is my end of the payment. Be sure to keep yours." He walked back toward Dumbledores house.

Remus looked from the vial of potion to Severus and back again. He shook his head and turned to the others. "See, you can be civil," he said to James, then looked serious. "All right, let's see if this works."

The first thing they needed to do was find a place that resembled at least slightly the place that they were trying to contact. They had decided the bottom of Remus' house, being a classroom would aptly describe Hogwarts. Remus himself was the second part of the spell, being someone who knew the now ghost. Lily had said that they should use both the potion and the Ouija board at the same time to double their chances of being successful, plus the book had said the Ouija board worked best when coupled with a potion, this being the reason it was so hard for Muggles to use.

Sirius and Remus both drank half of the potion, the reason for this being that they were the most recently departed of the group. All four of them sat around the board and linked hands except for the two who had drank the potion whom both had two fingers on the planchette. They had opted out of the candles, as they were unnecessary and would just make it more difficult for them to see.

Lily and James said the incantation and there was a flash of light. They smiled at each other. It was exactly like the book had described. They then cleared their mind and thought of things that described the ghost they were looking for. The thing at the forefront of most of their minds was wild colored hair. There was another flash, dimmer this time. This also was described in the book. It meant that something had bumped them ahead and the only had to do the last step. They looked at each other nervously.

Lupin took a deep breath and looked at Sirius. He nodded and they began to spell out Nymphandora Tonks. They had been uncertain whether or not to use her married name or not, but they decided not to. If she had lost any memories, which may happen in some cases, it was best to go by the name they had been called for the majority of their life.

There was a moment of tense silence before there was a hissing sound like steam out of a teakettle and a small explosion of tye-dye smoke. Everyone released each others hands to cover their mouths and cough. As the smoke dissipated they stared in shock at the image before them.

A young woman was sitting on the Ouija board. She had a slightly torn plain blue t-shirt and scuffed looking jeans. Her hair was short and slightly spiky with a blinding neon-green color. She coughed and opened her eyes, only to lunge backwards with surprise.

"Nymphandora...?" Remus whispered, shock on his face.

"Remus?" Nymphandora said in shock, and fainted.

xXx

End Chapter Five

I'm going to refer to Tonks as, well, Tonks because Nymphandora is too much to type and I think just 'Dora' is weird. Like Dora the Explorer /shudders.


	6. Faint

Chapter 6! Again I don't remember this! My memory is so flippin' bad, not at all helped in the fact I haven't looked at this in _two years._ I'm bad.

**Faint**

Tonks had been moved up to Remus' couch after she had fainted. Remus hadn't looked too well himself, so Sirius had taken him to his room. That had left James and Lily to talk uninterrupted.

"How long will the spell last?" James asked, "I don't want it wearing off before she wakes up."

Lily looked to where Tonks was now sleeping. "I think we have twenty-four hours until the spell completely fades and she vanishes. That should be enough time to talk, I think"

James sighed, "I hope so. I hadn't really thought about Harry's intentions before Remus brought this up," he paused, "Still, though, I have a feeling that everything will turn out fine"

Lily smiled at him, "I do too. Let's just both just stay positive and our thoughts may become reality."

Their attention was suddenly drawn to the couch by a soft moan. Lily rushed over while James stayed back in case he needed to grab something.

He watched as Tonks opened her eyes and blinked slowly. She tried to sit up but was unable to on her own. Lily helped support her until she was sitting upright on the couch.

"Ouch," she groaned, holding her head, "It feels like I just woke up from a big night out." she paused and took a moment to look around. She was startled when she saw who was standing in the room. "James? Lily!"

Lily smiled softly, "Yes, that's us. How do you feel"

Tonks grinned, "I think I already answered that question, but I could come up with another metaphor if you'd like me to."

Lily chuckled a little, "No, that would be fine. I take it you're feeling better than you were earlier?"

"Yes, much better..." she trailed off, trying to recall what had happened earlier. Her eyes widened as the events rushed back to her in full force, "Remus!"

xXx

Sirius sat next to the bed watching Remus sleep. It had almost been an hour since the spell had been successful. He hadn't been surprised when Tonks had fainted away at the sight of her husband. It had taken a little while to carry her up the stairs and situate her on the couch. After they had done that Lily had mentioned Remus looked a little pale and had ordered Sirius to take him to his room, where he had promptly collapsed.

Sitting there in silence Sirius was worried for his friend. It had seemed to him that Remus had almost wanted it not to work. The look on his face when he had seen his ghostly wife had confirmed Sirius' suspicions. Now he just wondered _why_. His friend had been genuinely concerned for Harry, but hadn't seemed to want to do all things necessary to find the answers.

Remus shifted in his sleep, startling Sirius, and looked like he was going to wake up. Sirius planted a smirk and prepared a snarky response to the question he knew that Remus was about to ask.

"What happened?" Remus asked the predictable question and looked around unsuspectingly.

"Well," Sirius replied, smirk firmly in place, "The spell worked and we acquired one hair-color changing ghost, who promptly fainted. We then had to carry said ghost upstairs and settle her on the couch. Lily then ordered me to take you, who was looking a little pale, to your room, where you fainted like the man you are."

"Oh." Remus said faintly.

"Well, you asked." Sirius replied, chuckling faintly. "Anyway, if you're feeling up to it, I think our ghost just woke up."

"Tonks?" Remus exclaimed and practically jumped out of bed. For a moment he staggered and almost fell, but caught his balance in time.

Sirius shook his head as he followed his friend out the door at a more normal pace. As he got closer to the living room he could hear the sounds of arguing, but could only make out the words once he got closer.

"-have stayed home!" Remus was saying while Tonks sat there with a stubborn expression on her face and in her body language.

"I'm a big girl, I can do what I want." she said fiercely.

Sirius held back a snort and looked away to see James standing to the side trying not to laugh. It sounded more like a daughter wining to her father than a husband berating his wife.

"Fine, I guess you didn't need me to block that curse for you as you obviously planned on dying anyway!" Silence reigned after Remus' angry outburst. He immediately looked shocked at what he had said and covered his mouth with his hand. "I- that was uncalled for. I'm sorry." Remus said quietly.

"Yes, it was." Tonks said stiffly.

Sirius cleared his throat uncomfortably, "So, what's been going on since the last time I, uh, saw you?" he said, trying to start a not so difficult conversation.

The tense atmosphere became less tangible as Tonks talked about the last couple years. When she began to talk about her and Remus's relationship things got a little hairy, but in the end it all worked out. She said she had died by being struck from behind with a binding curse and having a wall fall on her. The rest of the group winced. That had to have hurt. She also said that the reason she wanted to become a ghost was so that she could see Teddy sometimes. When she admitted this tears formed in her eyes and Remus awkwardly patted her on the back.

"It's going to work out just fine." Lily said soothingly.

James had went into the kitchen to make tea and emerged with five cups. He received thanks as he handed them out.

"What do you remember about after you died?" asked Sirius suddenly a few minutes later.

This initially startled the other unghostly members of the room, but then they began to see the validity of the question. How did a ghost form? They knew that they didn't just immediately form after death, so what happened between the time of death and appearance of the persons ghost.

"Well," Tonks began, thinking, "I remember dying, then ending up floating in a really white room for a really long time. Suddenly it felt like I had activated a portkey and was being pulled forward through a dark tunnel. I must have passed out because the next thing I knew Nick was waking me up and telling me the duties I would have at the castle."

There was silence for a moment. "You mean it was all over by the time you got there?" Remus asked.

"Yup, and the castle was a right mess, though I guess they had moved all the bodies by then." Tonks replied thoughtfully.

"Wait! What about Harry?" James exclaimed.

"Oh, I was just talking to him when you pulled me away. It was the first time I had seen him since I died." Tonks replied, thinking. "It was weird though, he seemed a little different than normal. He was actually talking to that nasty little Malfoy boy."

Remus and Sirius exchanged glances. Harry talking to Draco? Something was most definitely off. James meanwhile looked like he had eaten something sour.

"Malfoy? As in Lucius Malfoy and his lot? He had a son about two months older than Harry, right?" he asked, and when he received a confirmatory nod he burst out, "Why is he talking to _him_?"

"Why can't you be more open minded?" Lily retorted.

As James sulked Tonks asked, "I know you're his parents and everything, but why were you wondering? Also, why do you seem more anxious now that you know he's still alive and all that?"

"Oh, it's nothing! I'm fine," Lily said quickly then looked at the clock, "Oh, look at the time! Tonks dear, would you like to come and stay the night with us? Remus and Sirius could come over and we could talk more tomorrow."

Tonks looked at Remus and was about to say that they were married and didn't need separate rooms but paused when she saw he was avoiding her eyes. "Yes, I'd be glad to, thank you for the offer." she gave Remus a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight, I'll see you tomorrow. Is ten o'clock all right for you guys?"

"Yes, that's fine. Goodnight." Remus said as James, Lily, and Tonks left.

"It's going to be one long day tomorrow," Sirius said wearily.

Remus sighed, "Yes, it is."

xXx

End Chapter Six


	7. Perhaps an Interlude

This is slash. There is Sirius/Remus happening in this chapter. Kissing, oh so scandalous. Or at least it was when I first wrote this XD

**Perhaps an Interlude**

Remus sighed as he got ready for bed later that night. He still couldn't believe the spell had worked so well. They now had twenty-four hours to figure out what had happened until Tonks faded out. Since it had been around five p.m when she had been summoned they still had plenty of time in everybody's opinion. After all the conversations and revelations they had decided to call it a night and piece more things together tomorrow.

At around ten when James and Lily had offered to let Tonks stay with them things had gotten a little awkward in Remus' opinion. Remus didn't know why he didn't want to stay with her overnight, but hadn't wanted to be rude. He saw Tonks get ready to protest and looked away, not wanting to accidentally convey some wrong message. He had been surprised when she had cut off her protests and answered politely.

At Remus' inner gawking she had thanked them, and said that she was tired. Remus tried to stay calm as she gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek. He had pulled himself together enough to nod when she had suggested a meeting time and left.

Now being all alone with his thoughts Remus cursed himself for his stupidity. Even though he felt something when he had seen her it hadn't been the heart-warming love from before they had died. He thought about the kiss and only felt a fond feeling for this woman who was so much like a sister. Remus shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking about his wife like a sister. That was just strange. He tried to clear his thoughts and go to sleep, but instead he just felt more awake and uncomfortable. Thoughts flew through his head and one stopped at the forefront of his mind.

'What if I never really loved her? What if I was just trying to make up for something I felt I could never have?' he halted his thoughts, startled, when he heard Sirius moving around.

Remus winced at the thought. He hadn't meant to think that, but now that he had it wouldn't go away. He hated that question; it brought too many other uncomfortable questions that he didn't want to answer. He knew it would be futile to try not to think about it because that would only make it more prominent.

When he thought about it he realized he had been looking at Sirius more often lately. He usually noticed he was staring before too long, but sometimes he lost track of time and came back to reality to see Sirius staring back. When this happened he would look away quickly and begin doing something else, pretending nothing happened.

Remus was startled by a knock on the door. "Moony, you still awake?" Sirius asked through the door.

"Speak of the devil," Remus muttered and called, "Yes, I'm still awake. You can come in"

Sirius opened the door and then closed it again it most of the way. "Hey," he said and sat on the bed while Remus re-situated himself.

"Hey, yourself." Remus replied awkwardly. 'What do you do when the object of your thoughts comes to see you?' he wondered and said aloud, "What are you still doing up"

Sirius raised an eyebrow and looked at the clock, "It's not that late," he looked back at Remus, "Actually I wanted to talk to you about today. You seemed a little out of sorts," he said, sounding concerned.

Remus inwardly flinched. He had been hoping to avoid this subject. "What about today?" he asked, trying to sound normal.

"Everything." Sirius replied bluntly. "You've been edgy since Tonks got here. What's stranger is that you haven't approached her once. Aren't you two supposed to be married? And with a kid to boot? I just can't see it."

"It's complicated." Remus said softly and sighed when Sirius remained silent and sent him a look.

"I'm not even sure how I feel about her anymore. This feels more like my sister than my wife, which is kind of creepy in an incestual sort of way. The only thing I'm really sure of right now is that it's different from what it was before." he paused and tilted his head to the side, thinking, "It's like my feelings about you and her have kind of swapped," he muttered.

As soon as he realized he had said the last part out loud Remus gasped and clasped his hands over his mouth. As Sirius looked him over, Remus wished that since he couldn't curl into a ball and die, seeing as he was already dead, that he could sink through the floor instead.

Remus became less mortified and more uncomfortable as an evil smirk appeared on Sirius's face.

"Aww, Moony! I had no idea that you had a crush on me!"

"I never said it was a crush," Remus grumbled, but stopped when Sirius began chuckling.

"Not that I can blame you. Come one, look at me! You can't even tell I was in Azkaban for thirteen years." he smiled brightly at Remus, "Besides, lucky for you, I return the sentiments"

Remus began to panic as Sirius backed him into the headboard. "Wait-what do you mean? Return?" Remus babbled as Sirius succeeded trapping him. Remus was between Sirius' arms, leaning against the headboard.

From his position straddling Remus, Sirius silenced his babbling with a finger to his lips. "Yep," was all he said before he removed his hand and leaned forward.

Remus stifled a gasp as Sirius' lips met his softly. The kiss was over quickly, as Sirius didn't want to spook him. Sirius pulled back a little, "That wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked.

"I guess not," Remus said timidly, still shocked but warming up to the idea of kissing his long-time friend.

"Good, because I do believe I'm falling for you Moony," Sirius whispered and leaned in for another kiss.

This time Remus was prepared when their lips touched, and responded by deepening the kiss. Sirius approved by changing the angle for better access and probing at Remus's mouth with his tongue. Remus opened his mouth and moaned into the kiss. They continued their kiss until they decided to get some air.

When they pulled apart Sirius grinned at Remus's slightly glassy-eyed look though he knew he might look similar. Sirius thought this was a good time to ask a question.

"So...can I stay in here tonight?" he asked. With his tone of voice Remus could tell there was some sort of innuendo in there somewhere.

"Padfoot you horny dog!" Remus exclaimed and his friend laughed, swiftly changing into a dog and back, barking once.

"Please can I stay?" he asked pitifully, using puppy dog eyes aided by the fact he had been a dog less than a minute ago.

Remus sighed, defeated. "Fine, you can stay- but no groping me in my sleep. Or when I'm awake," he added quickly seeing a shifty look in the other man's eyes.

"You ruin all my fun," Sirius pouted, "I'm just going to go to sleep now. No more fun for you!" he gave Remus one more look, ruined by a wink, and got under the covers. He then snagged Remus and held onto him like a stuffed animal. "G'night Moony"

"'Night, Padfoot," Remus said quietly and waved the lamp off. He then fell asleep with the only light being a tiny sliver from the slightly open door.

xXx

James and Lily Potter were in shock. They moved quickly and silently to the living room and started whispering.

"Did you see that?" asked James anxiously.

"How could I not have? They were all over each other!" Lily exclaimed, trying hard to keep her voice down.

"I know they're dogs, but still..." James trailed off at the glare Lily gave him. He cleared his throat, "Anyway, what are we going to do about this?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but we need to do everything we can to keep this from Tonks," Lily said and James agreed.

They left soon after, both thinking that they had a lot to talk about. They were both still in shock. Who would've thought that they had been thrown into this situation all because of a forgotten pen?

xXx

End Chapter Seven


	8. The Morning After

Chapter 8! This is exciting. Sort of. I guess. What's weird is most of my editing has been missing question marks or periods. Oh well, at least they're fixed(hopefully I haven't missed any) now.

**The Morning After**

The next morning when Remus woke up he discovered he had a problem. When he moved to get up he discovered he couldn't move, due to the small problem of a body on his. He sighed in exasperation and wiggled to push off his friend.

Sirius just mumbled and buried himself deeper into Remus' chest. Remus pushed aside thoughts saying to just stay there and instead said, "Sirius, I know how much you like it there, and if you don't move it won't happen again."

Remus smirked as Sirius immediately rolled over and sat up. He looked around the room and yawned, pretending that he had been like that all along. He stopped in the middle of a stretch and looked at the clock.

"What time are we supposed to be at James and Lily's?"

"Ten o'clock. Why?" Remus asked and sat up to look also. When he saw the time he practically flew out of bed. "How could it be so late already? I thought I set the alarm! We only have ten minutes!"

Sirius laughed at the other man freaking out and calmly got up and went to his room, where he had already set out clothes the night before in anticipation. After he was dressed he walked into the bathroom and repressed another chuckle as he saw Remus trying to brush his teeth and hair at the same time.

Remus noticed him watching and spit out the mouthful of water he'd been gurgling. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing." Sirius said and finished getting ready.

xXx

"I don't understand," Remus complained as they rushed to James and Lily's, "I know I set the alarm last night before I brushed my teeth!"

"Of course you did," Sirius said soothingly, "I just turned it off, is all."

Remus stopped in his tracks. "You did what?" he exclaimed.

"You heard me, I turned off the alarm. Now let's go, we're already late." Sirius stated and continued walking.

By the time Remus had processed this Sirius was a good distance ahead and he had to jog to catch up. "But why did you turn it off?" he asked when he reached him.

"How could you ask that? It was to spend more quality time with you, obviously." Sirius replied and glanced at Remus with puppy-dog eyes.

Remus rolled his eyes and shook his head, knowing he'd never understand how Sirius' mind worked.

By the time they got to James and Lily's house they were almost fifteen minutes late. Remus stopped Sirius before the gate to give him one last warning.

"All right, to them nothing happened last night. We're still just friends, so no groping or being overly possessive." Remus said sternly.

"You make it sound like we did more than just kiss," Sirius mumbled and when he received a glare said, "Yes, no acting like a couple, now let's go."

Lily was waiting in the entry hall when they got there. She lectured them on being late and then told them to go into the living room as breakfast was going to be served there.

As they waited James and Tonks appeared from upstairs. James had been trying to get more information before the others had arrived. When breakfast came he informed them that there wasn't really all that much to say.

After a few minutes Lily came in with breakfast, accompanied by an unexpected guest.

"Severus, what are you doing here?" Remus asked, surprised. Although he had known that everyone could walk around he hadn't expected to run into him anywhere, especially here.

"I came to talk to you all, obviously," Severus said dryly, "though I think that your end of the bargain will be easier to uphold," he sent a glance in Tonks direction.

"Yes, well, as you can see the one we were contacting was my wife, Nymphandora, and as for why..." Remus trailed off.

"We wanted to see how Harry was doing," Sirius said bluntly, throwing a glance in Remus' direction that James and Lily did not miss.

"So how was he doing?" Severus asked, recalling the last time he had seen Harry. He supposed he had been a little rash, demanding Harry look at him, and now that he thought about it, it was more than a little creepy. He supposed he could be embarrassed later, but for now he just wanted answers.

"He's doing well," Tonks said, speaking for the first time since they had arrived. "Draco and him were talking before I left," she added, knowing that the man before her would be concerned about the boy.

"That's good. I had always hoped those two would finally throw aside their petty rivalries and become allies instead," Severus said fondly, thinking of Draco.

They ate breakfast and talked about Severus' teaching position and how many students he'd made afraid to come to potions. They also talked about how the Order had been doing and some other, more casual things.

The whole time James and Lily were watching Sirius and Remus for any sign of what they had seen last night, or what might have happened after they had left. They were both acting normal, for them at least, and it made their observers wonder about the nature of their relationship.

James was getting bored and had started trying to get Lily's attention to cease their observation when he noticed something strange. Every time Tonks tried to move over to sit beside Remus, Sirius would stretch out, or scoot over toward Remus who was acting oblivious to the whole situation.

The next time Tonks tried to move James got Lily's attention and subtly nodded in their direction. Unbeknownst to them Severus had noticed the motion and also looked over in time to see Sirius stretch exaggeratedly and Tonks look disappointed and finally annoyed.

"I am _trying _to sit here, if you haven't noticed," Tonks snapped at Sirius.

"Actually, I haven't. Would you like to?" Sirius feigned seriousness and pulled Remus over, with much protesting. "Here, you can sit on that side."

After that Sirius was receiving two glares. One from sheer annoyance and one that meant trouble later. He was only worried about the latter, as his obstacle, according to the book, should be gone in five hours. After Tonks turned around Remus sent one last meaningful look at him and turned to talk to her.

The observers, who had now upped their numbers to three, all sat and pondered this latest bout of possessiveness. Lily noticed Severus pondering also and raised an eyebrow at him. He nodded and sent her a look to talk to her husband and say he also might know what was going on.

Severus sighed. There was going to be a whole lot more explaining going on than he had expected upon his arrival that morning.

xXx

End Chapter Eight


	9. Awkward

This chapter features POV changes, lots of thoughts and some ooc-ness. I guess. And don't forget the couple descriptive paragraphs of DOOM! I have no one to blame but myself, so here I go.

**Awkward**

As the time for Tonks to go back to the realm of the living got closer, things began to get more strained. Severus could see everyone trying to ease the tension, but it wasn't working. All the stories they had told to help loosen everyone up just added to a feeling of uncomfortableness until an awkward silence fell.

Remus sighed and rubbed his temples. He saw Sirius send him a concerned glance and gave a weak smile in response. Sirius looked at him skeptically for a moment then looked away again.

Lily didn't think she could stand much more of this. She was a very patient person, but the last hour had been particularly trying. Finally, with a little over forty-five minutes left until Tonks' expected departure she got up and said, "Would anyone care for some more tea, or anything?" even to her own ears her question sounded lame, so she was surprised when she received affirmative nods from everyone.

"I'll come too!" James said quickly, wanting to get out of the tense atmosphere.

"I shall come also. I wanted to speak with you two privately anyway." Severus said and got up to follow them.

When they got to the kitchen Lily got the things ready for tea while James started the conversation.

"What do you want?" he asked sharply. James was honestly trying to get along with the other man, but years of animosity and the tenseness of the other room made him snappy.

Severus raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on James's tone, " I just wanted to confirm my suspicions about your strays."

James bit back a stinging retort and instead said, "It's none of our business what they do in their free time."

"Ah, so there _is_ something going on."

James inwardly cursed. In trying to avoid the subject he had inadvertently answered Severus' question. He was still trying to think of a reply when Lily spoke up.

"Yes, Severus, we have reason to believe Sirius and Remus are in a relationship," she said calmly.

"On what grounds?" Severus asked as James stood to the side and gaped. Severus stood processing the information as it was presented as she told him what they had witnessed the night before.

"I suspect you want to keep this a secret?" he asked after the story was complete.

Lily nodded, "Yes, I'm not sure what Tonks would do if she found out. She would probably be devastated."

"Indeed," Severus drawled, "Now that we have spent a suspiciously long amount of time in the kitchen I suggest we should go give them their tea." He strode out of the room, robes billowing behind him.

James looked at Lily and shook his head as she smiled at him. They were finishing arranging the tea trays when they were interrupted by a yell from the living room.

"Tonks! Tonks!" there was a pause, "James, Lily, get in here, something's happening!"

xXx

After Severus, James and Lily had left the room the level of tension had raised at least a couple more notches. Remus had decided to sit alone on the chair rather then between the two unwitting rivals on the couch.

He sighed again and resisted the urge to lower his head into his hands. He had a headache, which had been persisting for the last hour. He could tell both of his companions were concerned, but one was too timid and the other he had ordered off of him. He closed his eyes and groaned softly. Why did things like this always have to happen to him?

xXx

Sirius sighed and looked over at his friend, or was it lover? He pondered that thought for the time being. They hadn't gotten past kissing, so did that _really _make them lovers? Sirius shook his head.

'This is too complicated,' he thought, 'I'll just ask Remus about it once Tonks is gone.'

With that thought he shot a glare down the couch to where she was sitting, but didn't seem to notice. After a couple seconds he sighed and turned his attention back to the werewolf.

Remus looked as good as he had in Hogwarts, better actually, as far as Sirius was concerned. His straggly brown hair had grown to his shoulders and though still pale, the other man looked healthy. Sirius already knew from the bit of groping he had done last night that Remus was fit as well. He grinned and stopped himself from drooling. 'And the best part is,' Sirius thought, 'that I look great as well.'

Sirius' silky black hair reached halfway down his back and he had somehow acquired an almost tan. He was in the best shape of his life and he assumed that that was what death did to you. He frowned slightly as he thought about some of the older people he had seen, and shook his head. He didn't want to think about it, there was still a lot about death he didn't understand.

xXx

Tonks folded her arms over her chest and pouted. Why did Remus have to go sit somewhere else when she was trying to work up a conversation? She sighed and saw Remus lean forward and sigh also. When she witnessed this she almost grinned. She knew that meant he was thinking of something he didn't want to contemplate.

Before they had died Tonks had felt she knew her husband so well that she didn't even have to see him in order to know what he was feeling. That was part of what was annoying her now. She had been sitting in the same room as him; She had practically been sitting _on_ him earlier and all she had felt was awkwardness and uncertainty. She frowned as she mulled that one over.

They were married, why should he feel awkward about them sitting together. She suddenly felt Sirius glaring at her, but she ignored it as it had been happening a lot lately.

'Till death do we part.' Tonks flinched at the unbidden thought. 'Tonks! Quit being so depressing, right now!' she silently berated herself, but it was no good. The thoughts kept coming.

'Till death do we part? Does that mean we _have_ to part after death? Or does it just mean unless you don't die together? Then again it could just be one of those weird phrases muggles come up with...I don't know!'

xXx

Tonks' hair had been becoming duller and duller and was a dark gray by the time anyone noticed. Sirius was the first.

"Um, Remus..." he said and trailed off as tears began to spill from Tonks' eyes. When the first couple hit the floor she began to flicker.

Multiple things happened immediately after this. Severus walked into the room, paled, and walked to the entry hall; Sirius panicked and jumped Remus to get his attention; Remus noticed Tonks crying and flickering, pushed Sirius off him and started to yell.

"Tonks? Tonks! James, Lily, something's happening!"

xXx

James and Lily entered to chaos with a sense of humor. Severus was walking calmly back from the entry hall with a rack of potions; Sirius was sitting on the floor looking gobsmacked and staring at Remus; Tonks was flickering madly and crying like a waterfall with gray hair; and Remus was slowly losing control of the panic button and looking more distressed by the second.

Just as it seemed all hell was about to break loose Tonks stopped flickering. Remus' mouth was gaping open in shock and to Severus it seemed like the opportune moment to pour a calming draught down his throat. As he sputtered Sirius got up and inched over to him and even James and Lily dared come closer.

For a good thirty seconds they stood, or sat, there staring at Tonks image. She looked frozen; some tears still stuck in freefall or welling in her eyes. Her image slowly faded to gray, and with a small cracking sound it shattered.

They gathered in a stunned silence for a few seconds before Remus broke it.

"What just happened?" he asked calmly, as the draught had just kicked in.

"I would say she spontaneously combusted, but everyone knows that's just a myth." Lily said matter-of-factly.

"It didn't mention anything of this nature in the books," Severus added sullenly.

The three then looked to James and Sirius expectantly.

"Uh, she had an emotional breakdown and it forced her back to the realm of the living unexpectedly resulting in shadow images and mirages?" James said hesitantly and everyone looked at him in shock.

Sirius had just opened his mouth to speak when Tonks popped back into existence looking extremely pink and bubbly. This resulted in him just gaping in shock.

Hey all," she said stumbling onto Remus who was stiff with shock even with the calming draught, "Looks like I'll be staying here for a while."

With that she gave Remus a resounding kiss on the lips and promptly passed out. This resulted in her not hearing Remus squeak of protest of Sirius' squawk of indignation, nor did she hear Sirius' eloquent assessment of the situation once he had once again found his voice.

"Wha- what the hell is going on here!"

xXx

End Chapter Nine


	10. Complications

More slash this chapter! You have been warned. Again.

**Complications**

As soon as Tonks woke up she knew something was wrong. She didn't recognize her surroundings and her head hurt like, well, to put it bluntly, hell. She sat up and immediately regretted the action, taking her pounding head in her hands she decided to sit for awhile until the room stopped spinning.

After a few minutes Tonks felt it was all right to open her eyes so she did so and observed her surroundings. Contrary to what she had previously thought she did recognize where she was. It was the room she had stayed in the night before at James and Lily's house. Her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. Hadn't she gone back to the land of the mostly living?

She shook her head, trying to clear it, and decided the only clear choice of action was to get up and ask somebody about it. Tonks slowly made her way out of bed and into the hallway to the stairs. Once there she paused, questioning her ability to navigate them. After a moment of calming herself and a deep breath she started her way down.

About-half way to the ground floor she began to hear people's voices. After a couple more steps she could actually understand what was being said.

"But why is she still here?" Tonks heard Sirius' currently whiny-sounding voice question.

"We don't know," that was James, and he sounded weary, as if this was the thousandth time he'd been forced to answer this question.

"Just calm down, we'll try to figure out what's happening as soon as she wakes up." Lily said and looked over to the doorway just in time to see Tonks almost trip down the last step. Her eyebrows came together with an almost audible snap. "What are you doing up, dear? You should still be resting."

Tonks shook Lily's hand off of her shoulder and made her way into the room to flop down on the couch an unusually silent Remus was occupying. He glanced over at her for a moment, but when he saw her watching him he looked away quickly.

Tonks frowned to herself watching him. What was his problem? She thought back, trying to remember what had happened. She knew that she must have done something, but she couldn't quite place it. She also knew there had been a couple minutes after she had come back here and passed out that she couldn't remember. She sighed, wishing she knew what was going on.

The silence was broken by the clock on the mantel of the fireplace ringing eleven o'clock. Everyone looked startled. They hadn't realized that it was getting so late. No one moved for a little while, but eventually Sirius got up and began to say his good-byes.

"Well, I guess we should be going, it's getting late," Sirius said and clapped James on the back. "We'll probably be here sometime tomorrow to talk about this development," he said as he gestured toward Tonks. "All right." James replied as Lily went to gather Tonks up and get her upstairs, "Should we expect you before or after lunch?" he asked.

"Probably after lunch," Remus said, chipping into the conversation for the first time since Tonks had reappeared. When James and Sirius looked startled he elaborated, "Severus would want to be here too. He usually stays up late so you shouldn't have a problem contacting him tonight, but I know when I was teaching at Hogwarts that he likes to sleep in." At the other occupants of the rooms dumbfounded looks Remus just sighed.

"Tomorrow. Expect us for lunch around noon-ish. Good night"

As he walked to the entryway to get his coat James and Sirius shook their heads at each other. "Well, guess we'll have yet more to talk about tomorrow." Sirius sighed and took his leave.

xXX

After Lily had gotten Tonks settled back into bed she came back downstairs. James was waiting for her to talk. "Remus said to not expect them until noon or so." James reported.

"So Severus should get here around ten or so then?" Lily asked and James rolled his eyes.

"Are we really going to go sticking our noses in their business?" he asked, and then added lest anyone forget his reputation, "Not that I mind, I'm just more used to pranks than, uh, romance." he shuddered at the word.

Lily gave him a stern look, "It's not just their business, it's ours, and Tonks, most of all. I mean, how do you think I would react if you just went out and I found that you were sleeping with your best guy friend?"

James spit out the juice he had just tried to drink and coughed a few times. After he got his air back he exclaimed, "I should hope that you could have a little more tact than that when push comes to shove! That would be a perfect way to dump it on her. 'Hey Tonks, your husband in life is now gay and sleeping with Sirius.' Yeah, that would go over real well."

"That's not what I was saying," said Lily after James was done with his mini-rant and had made sure no one, specifically Tonks, had heard his outburst. "I think we should ease it to her."

"Yeah, well I think Sirius and Remus should tell her when they're ready, and as much as it still pains me to think about it, I think Severus would think so as well."

"I guess you're right, but don't get used to it." Lily said and grinned at him. "All right, let's go to bed."

xXx

"She doesn't deserve you," Sirius said in bed later that night. He and Remus had gotten home about an hour before and he had managed to get the other man into a better mood by light teasing and coaxing, trying to make it seem like any other night before Tonks had appeared.

"What do you mean?" asked Remus, his voice slightly muffled by the fabric of his shirt as he dressed for bed.

Before answering Sirius looked at him appraisingly. When he was done feeling Remus up with his eyes he said, "You're just plain too good for her. I mean, she seems to take advantage of you." he explained to cut off any protest as Remus got into bed.

"If she takes advantage of me, I'd hate to know what you do to me." Remus said teasingly, and then smacked the other man for snickering at the wording. "God, sometimes I don't know why I put up with you."

"Because you love me," Sirius said with a wide grin.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Remus said noncommittally and laughed as the other man pouted.

"Well, if you're going to be like that, come over and prove it to me." Sirius said challengingly. With a grin Remus leaned over and dropped him a kiss. Sirius snorted as Remus lay back down. "Come on, that's nothing compared to last night. That was more like a kiss you would give to Tonks," he paused, "Eww, gross! I did not want those images running together!"

Remus frowned wondering what was so bad that his friend was imagining. Instead of asking that particular question he said instead, "What's so bad about Tonks anyway? Why do you dislike her so much?"

Sirius muttered something and Remus raised an eyebrow. "I may have sensitive hearing, but that doesn't mean I can always hear you."

Sirius glared at him and said "You're a wonderful person. You're kind, caring, generous, and patient. Basically all the things I'm not." he paused, "As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I deserve you."

Remus was sure that this wasn't the whole reason Sirius disliked the younger girl, but he kept this to himself. He was pretty sure this was just the part about why Sirius liked him, and not why he held such an animosity toward Tonks. Instead of trying to over think things more Remus smiled at the dejected look on the other mans face.

"Come on, let's not get into another glum mood. One a day is all I can handle in the depression department." Remus said, trying to cheer up Sirius. He was trying hard to be cheerful when his emotions regarding Nymphandora were trying to eat him whole, but he couldn't make the effort all by himself. He needed Sirius.

Sirius finally seemed to realize this and pulled himself from his mini bout of self-pity. He breathed in slowly and exhaled, a smirk now gracing his features. While Remus was happy the man was in a better mood he wasn't sure he liked the lascivious smirk being sent his way.

"All right, now that we're both awake and in a better mood, what shall we do?" Sirius asked, his grey eyes flashing.

"Uhm, we should go to bed- sleep!" Remus corrected himself quickly. "Look, you're not going to ambush me this time. I want a say in something beginning, not another sneak attack!" his voice raised a little as his heart rate sped up.

"Well, why don't you start it then?" Sirius asked with one eyebrow raised.

"I-I will when I'm ready," Remus said and took a deep, calming breath. Slowly he pulled Sirius' head down; the other man had been straddling him again, and pressed their lips together in a kiss.

The kiss started off softly, as the other one had, but after a short amount of time it became more heated. This time wasn't about the wild rush of newfound emotions; it was a low, burning passion taking its own sweet time to fully ignite. Their mouths moved against each other, randomly sucking and pulling back. Remus' eyes became half-lidded and Sirius probed his tongue forward and gained entrance to the other mans mouth.

Remus put his tongue into action too and they dueled for dominance. Finally, after several minutes of kissing Remus slowly pulled back, keeping Sirius at a distance as he did. Sirius stopped and looked at him questioningly.

Remus absorbed that look, took a deep breath and said, "I know we've known each other for a long time, but we've just recently gotten into this type of relationship. I think we should take it slow."

Sirius closed his eyes in disappointment. He knew what he was doing. When he was at Hogwarts being a Black wasn't the only thing he was known for. He sighed and said, "All right, we'll go slowly. _Your_ pace, no matter how much it frustrates me. Is that what you want to hear?" Sirius asked and opened his eyes.

"Yes, thank you." Remus said, looking into his eyes he grabbed the back of Sirius's neck and pulled him down for another short kiss. "Well, we should go to sleep. Tomorrow is today already, and we have to be on time for lunch."

Startled, Sirius glanced at the clock which now read one o'clock in the morning. He sighed and shifted uncomfortably. "All right, I guess. Goodnight, Moony."

"G'night, Padfoot," Remus said and snuggled under the covers. He didn't hear the other man move silently out of the room and come back a couple minutes later to cuddle up behind him.

xXx

End Chapter Ten

Aww, look at my baby attempts for slash. How far I've gone since then. /reminiscences


	11. Mysteries almost Revealed

Wee, Chapter 11. I'm still not quite sure how many chapters this is going to end up being(or when I'm going to update. I just saw DH p.2). Anyway, another dead character shows up in this chapter.

**Mysteries Almost Revealed**

Severus Snape was not having a good morning. In fact, he was not having a good life, and subsequent death. Going along those lines it seemed it wasn't getting any better either.

The night before, right as he was about to go to bed he had gotten a fire-call from his favorite person in the world, James. He had almost reached through the connection and wrung his neck. Instead, with much self-control, he had politely asked why he had called him.

James had also answered politely, if a little coldly, that he wanted to speak with him and Lily the next morning around ten o'clock.

At this proclamation Severus had gotten a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach and asked, "So what will we have the pleasure of discussing?"

James had winced at his tone, quickly sending a pleading glance at Lily who was sitting behind him and replied, "The situation with Tonks."

"And?" Severus had said, knowing the other man was trying to hide something from him. "If it has to do anything with those two mutts I refuse."

Suddenly James had found himself between grimacing and throwing himself through the fireplace to kill the other man. He ended up just managing to say, "Don't call them that!" before he was pulled backwards and Lilys face appeared in the fire.

"Please, Severus, we really want to speak with you," she said and at that moment he knew he had lost.

He sighed weakly and put his hand on his forehead, "Fine, fine, ten o'clock. I will see you tomorrow." Severus said and abruptly walked out of the room.

That had been at about midnight, now at nine forty-five he found himself walking up the steps to their door. He let himself in and walked to the sitting room to sit on the couch. Lily came in a couple minutes later to ask if he wanted tea and he had nodded, grumbling.

When she came back James had managed to drag himself downstairs and was sitting in a recliner across from the couch. Lily had made three cups, anticipating her husband's arrival. When they had gotten comfortable Lily began to speak.

"So we all know why we're here-"

"Not like we care," Severus said coldly, glaring at his tea.

James and Lily exchanged a glance; Severus really _wasn't _a morning person.

"Yes, but that's beside the point. Even if we supposedly don't care we still know what's going on and have an obligation to make sure everything turns out well!" Lily said enthusiastically.

"Sure, now all we have to do is figure out what it is that we're doing." James muttered.

"I vote we do nothing unless Sirius and Remus begin to openly advertise their...relationship." Severus said slowly, checking to make sure Tonks was still asleep and hadn't unexpectedly come downstairs.

"I think that's a wonderful idea!" James exclaimed.

"I don't." Lily said with a glare to her husband.

"And why not?" he replied.

"Because she's a busy-body that won't keep her neb where it belongs," came a new voice.

Everybody jumped and looked around quickly. Fred Weasley stood in the doorway looking bored.

"Mr. Weasley!" Severus said, and wearily looked around, paranoid that both of them had conspired to die at the same time.

"Don't worry Snape, only me...for now." Fred said and smirked at the other man.

"I'm hoping that means in about fifty years, and not that you two had made some kind of creepy suicide plan should one of you die unexpectedly." Severus said raising an eyebrow.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Fred said and winked. "Anyway, now that I've interrupted your little party what's going on?"

After they'd explained most of it Fred looked kind of put out. "Is that all?" he asked, "Couldn't it be a little more exciting? More scandalous?" he was suddenly cut off as Tonks stumbled into the room.

"Good morning," she mumbled before she staggered off to get tea.

"Well, there you go. Enough _excitement_ for you?" James asked sarcastically and Fred made a face.

"You were just waiting until she came down, weren't you? You wanted to get the jump on me!" he accused and the adults smothered grins.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Snape said with complete seriousness.

"You're all bonkers, I'm not sure if I should be in the same room as you." Fred said and backed off playfully.

"Whoa there!" Sirius exclaimed as he grabbed Fred by the shoulders before he ran him over.

"Sirius!" he exclaimed, delighted, "And...Professor Lupin!"

"Not professor anymore, just call me Remus," he said and smiled sadly. "I suppose we'll see you around now."

"Yeah, I guess so, my flat is about a ten minute walk from yours," Fred said, glancing over Sirius and Remus and noting the distance between them, trying to see if they would slip up.

Much to his chagrin they sat down at reasonable distances from each other on a couch and he sighed and sat also. Tonks came into the room with a cup of tea and sat herself next to Lily on another couch.

James looked at the clock and the two newest members of their not so little meeting. It was only a little past eleven.

"So, what are you two doing here so early?" he asked.

"It's Remus' fault." Sirius said immediately.

Remus shot Sirius a glare and said, "I thought that we would try to be on time for once. It just ended up with us being way early instead."

Sirius snorted and mumbled, "Well, that's an understatement."

Lily cleared her throat and said, "Well, since we're all here let's try and figure out why Tonks didn't manage to get home."

"Yes, that is a problem," Severus said, leaning back. "I propose we go to Dumbledores library and research."

Fred and Sirius winced and James made a face.

"Umm, I have stuff to do. I'll see you lot later, yeah?" Fred stuttered and fled.

"Cheater," Sirius mumbled and James nodded.

"Well, let's go then," Remus said cheerfully and Lily nodded enthusiastically.

Lily turned to Tonks, "Do you want to come with us or do something else?"

"I think I'll go explore," Tonks said, smiling faintly, her hair beginning to turn a brighter shade of pink, "I've always wondered what the other side was like, and now that I'm here I might as well see what there is to see!"

xXx

Tonks wandered off and the remaining group headed over to Dumbledores house and the library that it doubled as. Dumbledore had greeted them at the doors and he seemed to have finally changed his appearance to how it was when he was younger. He had short auburn hair and a nice complexion. He still had the twinkle in his blue eyes and that seemingly all-knowing air about him that drove others crazy.

After two hours with a brief break for lunch even Remus was getting dejected. They had gone through all the books they had originally looked at and found nothing. At last Sirius had broken down and went to go find Dumbledore to see if he had any recommendations.

"Ah, I was wondering when you were going to ask me, my boy," he said with that cursed twinkle in his eye.

Sirius was slightly disturbed by the fact that Dumbledore now looked the same age, or younger, than himself, and still called him 'my boy'. "Yes, so, are you going to answer me?" he asked impatiently.

Dumbledore just smiled patiently, "Muggles say the reason for ghosts is that they have regrets in the mortal world. It's not the same in the wizarding world, but it still affects us. I think that the reason Tonks was unable to go back was that she has regrets that she must face before she returns."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Sirius said cautiously. "I'll go tell the others," he called as he went to find them.

xXx

Sirius and Remus got home late that night, as usual. As they got ready for bed Remus went over the conversations that had kept them from getting home at a reasonable hour.

_"But what are her regrets?" James asked, frustrated. They had been sitting in their living room for the last hour going over that point getting no further than the first time the question had been asked._

_"We'll just have to ask her," Remus spat out, annoyed. He had kept quiet most of the conversation, but annoyance and lack of sleep had finally gotten to his temper._

_"We would, but she's still not back." Sirius said, rubbing at his temples. A headache was threatening him if he didn't get to bed soon._

_"She's been gone for awhile, maybe we should-" Lily started, but was interrupted when the object of their conversation walked in._

_"Sorry I'm late," Tonks looked sheepish, "I almost got lost and had to ask for directions. Anyway, I'm beat. I'll see you all tomorrow morning." She yawned and went upstairs._

_"I am not coming here tomorrow. I want a day to cool off. I've done nothing but be with you all since Remus got here. I want to just sit around all day without worrying about trapped ghosts." Sirius said stubbornly._

_"As much as I'm loath to admit it Sirius is right," Severus said, reminding everyone he was still there, as most of them had forgotten. "We all need a day to get ourselves together before we go off to save the ghost."_

_"All right, but we still need to talk about all this." Lily said, though she wasn't all that opposed to the idea._

_"We will, though it seems that's all we've been doing lately. We need to _do_ something. Try something other than just sit around talking." Remus said and got up to stretch. "Come on Sirius. Let's go home."_

Sitting in bed Remus thought that he might have been a little short, but at the moment he didn't really care. He was jumpy. Tomorrow was the first full moon since he had come to Dead Land and he was slightly nervous. He wasn't sure if he would transform or not. He could feel a little of the wolf moving around but it was nothing like the huge amount of pressure he had felt while he was alive.

Sirius leaned over and gave Remus a kiss on the cheek before he turned the lights off. Sirius knew the other man was nervous about tomorrow night, but he would be there no matter what. That was part of the reason he had suggested a day off.

Maybe Lily, being the busybody she was, would get some information out of Tonks and they would be a little farther on the puzzle. He smiled to himself as he got comfortable.

Yes, that would be nice. He couldn't wait until his barrier was gone and he could have his werewolf all to himself.

xXx

End Chapter Eleven

Oh what a joy this has been thus far. I wonder how it will end.


	12. Games and, uh, werewolves?

Warning for this chapter: More making out of the slashy kind, this time a little more graphic. Don't like, skip it, it's near the end.

**Games and, uh, Werewolves?**

"Remus, would you quit pacing?" Sirius said exasperatedly as he watched the other man turn to walk across the room for the twentieth time in just a few minutes.

"Sorry, I just-" Remus cut off and ran a hand through his hair.

It was three hours until it was estimated that Remus would normally transform. Tonks had shown up earlier in the day and said she was going to be there later that night.

Remus and Sirius had finally convinced her that she shouldn't stay, for her safety of course, but she said she would still come over.

"I know you're anxious," Sirius said, "Just sit and calm down. It doesn't matter if you change into a werewolf, it's not like you haven't done it before. I'm still an animagus and can transform if things get out of hand."

Remus sighed, "Yeah, you're right. I'm just stressing over it because I don't think I'll completely change."

"Shhh, you don't want Tonks to hear you! She might want to stay and I want some alone time!" Sirius said, only half joking.

Remus didn't have to reply because Tonks interrupted them then by bursting through the door and announcing, "Remus, I'm here! Oh, and Sirius too." she said shooting a dark look his way.

"Oh, I'm _so happy_ to see you!" Sirius said sarcastically looking over plaintively to Remus.

Remus shrugged and rolled his eyes and turned to Tonks. "Hello, not to be rude or anything, but how long do you plan on staying?"

"Oh, maybe a couple of hours," She replied causing Sirius to glare some more.

"That might be cutting it a little close, don't you think?" Sirius said wanting to be rid of her as soon as possible.

"It'll be fine," Remus said to Sirius, getting tired of his possessiveness. He then turned to both of them and said "I'm the one who is going to be...something-ing. I'll let you know when I feel you should go."

Tonks sighed and said, "Well, I suppose that makes sense."

"Of course it does, it's Remus, isn't it?" Sirius quipped. Silence followed that comment and caused him to sigh and say, "Well, since it appears there is no room for amusement what are we going to do until Tonks has to leave."

Remus rubbed his temples and said, "I guess we can...I actually have no clue."

Sirius chuckled and said, "Well, that's a first."

Tonks smiled, hoping that it looked friendly and said, "Maybe we can invite more people over."

"No, when Remus tells everyone to leave I don't want it to look like an evacuation." Sirius said looking over at Remus who offered him a smile.

"Then what are we going to do?" Tonks asked.

"Play Twister?" Sirius said randomly, causing the other two to look strangely at him. "What? It was only an idea, and I don't see you two being any help."

"Twister?" Remus asked after a long silence. "Well, I suppose we could play it, if we could find it."

"Yay!" Sirius exclaimed and ran down the hall to his room and came back out with a Twister box causing Remus and Tonks to stare at him more.

"Where did you get that?" Tonks asked.

"Dumbledore." Was all that Sirius had to say.

"Well that explains everything." Remus rolled his eyes, "Who's going to play first?" he asked as Sirius laid out the mat.

"All of us can play at the same time." Sirius said, smiling.

"Who would spin, then?" Tonks asked.

Sirius looked at her incredulously, "Um, hello? Magic?" Tonks muttered a soft 'Oh' and Sirius said, "All right, let's start the game!"

xXx

An hour later Sirius was wishing he had never come up with the idea of playing Twister. Right now Remus was on the sidelines after falling trying not to laugh at the remaining two players.

Remus could tell Sirius was seriously debating weather or not to fall on purpose, and Tonks wasn't that far behind him on that thought. They were in what most people would call a 'compromising position', tangled up in each other with twin hilarious looks of ill-hid disgust on their faces.

"Right hand blue." Remus said and Sirius decided this was his chance to fall. Unfortunately, so did Tonks and they ended up in an even more tangled ball of body parts. They soon launched away from each other with a glare.

"I think I'm done playing." Sirius said and Tonks agreed.

"What should we do now, then?" Remus asked, looking at the clock as well as noting how he felt. He decided Tonks should probably leave in about a half-hour.

"I'm done playing games here," Tonks said, the wording causing Sirius to chuckle. Tonks ignored him and continued, "We should just hang out, I'll go make tea, if that's ok." finding no objections she went to the kitchen.

As soon as she was out of normal hearing range Sirius turned to talk to Remus.

"When is she leaving?"

Remus sighed, wishing they could get along, "I'll tell her she should go in a little less than a half-hour."

"That long?" Sirius whined.

"It's not that long, just try not being so obnoxious." Remus said, leaving Sirius gaping when Tonks returned.

She looked between them and raised an eyebrow in question, to which Remus shook his head. She shrugged and said, "Here's the tea. I think you guys need to stock up a little, though. It was hard to find anything good."

"Our tea is good, you just have no ta-" Sirius stopped himself mid-word and, looking at Remus said, "Of course, that's a matter of opinion."

"Of course." Tonks said, now a little more suspicious than confused.

There was silence for a few minutes while someone tried to come up with a topic to talk about. Finally Tonks said, "How do you like staying here. In Dead Land, I mean. I think it's pretty cool, but something about it seems weird to me."

"I like it here," Remus said after a moment of catching up to the random conversation. "I've only been here a little while, but it seems...nice, like I could live here forever without wanting to leave."

"I feel the same way," Sirius said looking at Remus, then turned to Tonks, "but I also think something's weird about it."

"What kind of weird are you talking about?" Remus asked.

"Well, it's not really a bad kind of weird, it's just kind of strange that there's almost no animals and no, well, bad guys." Tonks said shrugging.

"Exactly," Sirius said. "Every once and awhile I hear an animal, but I never see them. I've heard rumors about a prison, though."

"A prison?" Tonks asked.

Remus shrugged, "I guess so. I think Lily mentioned it once. She didn't say where it was, but I don't think I'd want to know anyway."

"Yeah." Sirius said and the conversation trailed off. Soon the clock chimed and everyone jumped.

"Uh, well, I guess I should go, safety and all that." Tonks chuckled. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow or the day after. Bye." she waved and left.

"That was kind of abrupt." Remus said and Sirius could only nod in agreement.

Sirius stood up, stretched, and wandered around the room a little, unconsciously taking the same path Remus had been pacing earlier.

"You don't suppose she heard us, do you?"

"No, there's no way she could have. I think." Remus said, sighing and looking at the clock and also outside. The sun was almost set and it was only a matter of time until the moon rose.

"I think I should go to my room." Remus said and Sirius nodded in acknowledgment.

Sirius sat back down on a chair and looked around the small room. He had a good view of both the window and the clock from where he was, and it seemed like whatever was going to happen would happen any minute now. He got up again and paced, waiting for some sign of what would happen.

Suddenly a sound like the whining of a dog drifted down the hallway. It got higher pitched and then there was a long howl before it went silent. Sirius wasn't sure exactly what was going on. Remus usually screamed when he changed, and always had, so for him not to really make noise was definitely unusual. Sirius wasn't sure what to do. He wanted to go to Remus' room and see how he was, but he wasn't sure if he should.

His indecisiveness was cured when he heard soft whimpering. He immediately got up and went down the hallway. He didn't immediately burst into the room when he got there, though. "Remus, are you ok?" he asked only response was the sudden lack of noise.

"I'm coming in, ok?" he said and slowly opened the door.

He paused to take in the sight before him. Remus was sitting facing away from the door next to the bed which gave Sirius the perfect view of the tail spilling out over the other mans pants. He looked mostly human, except for that, and the dog ears Sirius noticed next sitting on top of his head. Sirius had made a noise of surprise and Remus now turned around and Sirius saw his eyes were golden and he had whisker marks. His canine teeth were long, and his nails had grown and sharpened as well.

"S-Sirius?" Remus stuttered, his voice deeper than normal and slightly gravely.

"Yeah, it's me. How do you feel?" Sirius asked, trying to send out soothing vibes.

Remus sat silently for awhile, trying to figure out how to answer that question. Finally he said, "I guess I feel ok. I feel kind of strange, like my wolf instincts are there, and strong, but my human side is still here enough for me to kind of have a clamp on them."

"Do you think I should change?" Sirius questioned.

"No, I'm fairly sure you'll be fine, though maybe you should go to the living room for awhile until I get used to this," Remus said taking a deep breath.

Sirius noted that and sighed softly, "All right, I guess I'll go out there. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call." Remus nodded and Sirius left.

About half way through the night Remus wandered out of his room to sit in the living room. He didn't bother with a chair, he just curled up on the floor in a dog-like manner, causing Sirius to mentally raise an eyebrow.

"I'm bored," Remus said suddenly.

"I'm sorry. There really isn't anything to do." Sirius said, sighing again.

"There has to be something to do." Remus said being uncharacteristically annoying. "Maybe we can go for a walk."

"I don't think so. Maybe next time," Sirius said wincing as he noticed he had to be the mature one here.

"Why can't we go this time?"

Sirius stared at the other man incredulously. He was usually the one that acted childish, but this was just taking it too far. "Because I said so," he said using the cliche parent excuse.

Remus looked at him suspiciously, "That's not a very good excuse." he said rolling onto his back so he was looking at Sirius upside down.

"Well, it's the only one I've got." Sirius said, resisting the urge to poke Remus in the stomach.

"I suppose." Remus said dejectedly, "What else is there."

"Nothing." Was all Sirius had to reply. "There is absolutely nothing to do." That's appropriate, anyway, he thought.

Remus sighed and began rolling back and forth on the floor, making it very hard for Sirius to keep a straight face. "We still have, like, three hours!" Remus complained, looking at the clock, and then the window where it was still dark.

"Oh Remus, I'd love to see it if you remember this in the morning." Sirius muttered to himself. "You'd have a cow."

Luckily the temporarily hyper-insane werewolf was too busy trying to occupy himself to hear that remark.

"Do you have any more games?" Remus asked, flipping back onto his stomach.

"Um, I have Twister, as you know, and Monopoly, Scrabble, Jenga, and Guess Who." Sirius replied caught off guard by the subject.

Remus seemed to think over the options for a little bit and then said, "Let's play Guess Who! Then we can play Twister." He smirked, reminding Sirius that no matter how immature he was acting he definitely wasn't a little kid.

xXx

"You're...Maria!" Remus exclaimed, effectively winning for the third time in a row.

"I quit." Sirius said. No matter how much his conscience wanted to put off playing Twister he just couldn't take this humiliation.

"Does that mean we get to play Twister now?" Remus asked excitedly, practically jumping up and down.

Even though Remus looked nineteen, and was thirty-eight, Sirius couldn't help but be reminded of an excited six year old when he was bouncing around like that. Sirius added yet another source of blackmail to the list he had started earlier that night, starting with the doggy ears.

"Yes, we can play Twister now," Sirius sighed, grinning as Remus shot him a brilliant smile and set up the mat.

"All right, I'll spin!" Remus exclaimed getting on one side of the mat and Sirius moved to be standing opposite him.

"If you insist," Sirius said, looking outside it seemed there was about a little more than an hour until daybreak.

Instead of a real reply Remus just sent him a smile and motioned toward the spinner causing the game to start.

Sirius started getting suspicious of Remus the first time he was backed into a position where the other man was practically sitting on top of him to get to the colored dots. The next time was when Remus 'fell' and touched his butt on the way down. After this only happened once or twice Sirius started thinking his suspicions had no base until he found himself once again face to face on top of Remus.

"You're cheating aren't you?" Sirius said accusingly as he had to rearrange himself into yet another compromising position with the other man.

"Maybe," Remus giggled, giving Sirius the impression of a drunk teenager. "Whoopsie!" he said and 'accidentally' fell on top of the other man. "Why hello there."

'Is there such thing as catnip for wolves, and who fed him some?' Sirius thought to himself as Remus groped him 'trying to get up'.

Sirius then noticed the lack of movement from the other man and looked down his torso to find him laying on his chest.

"Are you going to move?" Sirius asked after a couple minutes.

"No, actually I quite like it here." Remus said, snuggling so the tips of his ears were tickling Sirius's chin.

Sirius huffed out a breath of air, "What am I, a pillow?" he asked, half of him wishing the other man would get up and the other half wanting him to stay.

"Yes, and a darn good one too." Remus sighed.

Sirius silently cursed whatever entity had gotten him into this situation. 'Luckily I think I have enough control to stave off until he regains his senses...unless he does that.' he thought as Remus slid up so he was face to face with him and kissed him.

When Remus pulled back the golden color eyes seemed even more metallic and liquid. He breathed deeply, inhaling Sirius's scent.

"Sirius, you smell so good," Remus practically moaned, his voice soft and intense.

"Th-that's nice to know," Sirius said, trying to collect himself. He decided the effort was worthless when Remus leaned in for another kiss. This one wasn't over so quickly.

Though it started out slowly enough it escalated quickly from a modest kiss to making out. Sirius moved his lips across the other mans, then, licking across them he gained entrance. Remus was more than willing to let this continue his tongue intertwining with Sirius sucking on it suggestively.

Sirius mentally grinned and began to slowly move his hand up Remus's shirt, causing him to pause and emit a sound halfway between a sigh and a moan. He then leaned forward and began kissing him again hungrily. They continued kissing for a few minutes until they slowed and finally stopped. Remus pulled back and then moved to lean his forehead against Sirius', both of them breathing heavily.

"I feel kind of bad, but I wish I had you hyper-insane more often," Sirius said softly and Remus chuckled.

"I'm glad you think so highly of me," he said causing Sirius to grin.

"No problem." He looked outside, and then the clock. "It looks like you've got about five minutes until you're back to being logical. And tail-less."

Remus chuckled again and said, "I guess I'll go back to my room."

Sirius watched him walk down the hallway and shook his head. Remus usually didn't remember what he did when he transformed, but since he had still been mostly human this time he had the feeling he would remember. Sirius couldn't wait to find out.

A few minutes later there was a series of whimpers and a long howl and a couple minutes after that a disgruntled and normal looking Remus staggered out of the room, down the hallway and into the living room.

Sirius noted the similarities of this transformation and having a hangover and went to the kitchen to prepare tea calling over his shoulder to Remus that he should probably sit down before he fell over.

Sirius returned with the tea to find Remus still standing there with a slightly confused and blank look on his face. Sirius sighed, hoping he would get back to normal soon.

"Couch. Sit." he ordered, and there was a pause while Remus tried to steady himself and walked to the couch.

After he had sat down and Sirius had given him a cup of tea he looked up and said, "Did I seriously just do that?"

xXx

End Chapter Twelve

I have so many things(mostly perverted) I could say here but I won't. Maybe next chapter.


	13. Things Get a Bit Serious

So I think I figured out the reason I stopped here all those years ago. It's because I got absolutely zero reviews for this chapter. I still have zero reviews for this chapter. Not to sound needy or anything, but at the time it was my first ever attempt at writing something like this and getting no feedback on it was a punch to my morals gut. Since then I have written many a smut scene and while getting no reviews for it may put me off a bit it wouldn't stop me dead in my tracks like it did back then.

Just a little explanation/food for thought. On with the chapter.

Chapter warnings: Morals, a hand job, and the meaning of 'equal'

**Things Get a Bit Serious**

At about three in the afternoon Remus emerged from their bedroom to instead lurk on the couch. Earlier, after calming down a bit, Sirius had sent him to their room to rest and get some sleep. Remus had quietly complied seeing as he had been up all night anyway. Sirius had lain down on the couch as soon as he was sure the other man wasn't coming back, and he dozed for awhile. Now though, they were both awake and staring at each other from where they were sitting across the room in separate seats.

"So." Remus finally said, breaking the almost tense silence.

"Yes?" Sirius asked when it didn't look like Remus was continuing.

Remus looked down and sighed before lifting his head and looking at Sirius again. "I would ask you if I really did that, but unfortunately we both already know the answer."

"And?" Sirius asked, really not seeing the point.

"I'm just wondering why you didn't let us do, well, more, than we did."

Sirius sat in stunned silence for a moment before he began to rant. "Are you loony? I would never take advantage of you like that. Yes, I admit I wanted to _very_ badly, but I didn't. I want this to be as much a mutual, equal relationship as possible, and if anything happens between us I want it to be our full decision." He huffed out a sigh and took a deep breath before continuing, "I'm not going to do god-knows-what to my friend when he's not thinking anywhere near straight!" he crossed his arms over his chest and sat back showing exactly where he stood on the matter.

Remus sat in stunned silence, staring at the amazing man before him. He didn't fully understand what had taken over his friend, but he appreciated it. He smiled at Sirius who seemed to relax a bit at the gesture.

"I'm glad you found some morals." Remus said teasingly.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter, slightly surprised by the unexpected joke.

"You should be," he winked and leered at Remus causing him to just grin and shake his head. Sirius was glad they could still joke like this after discussing such a serious topic.

After that they moved on to talk about smaller things, like the little details that get left out when you're giving an overview of events. Sirius sat there, mostly smiling as he watched Remus become more animated, talking about things in life. Sirius found himself not really caring when the topic drifted over to Remus' son, and inadvertently Tonks.

"Do you think we should go to James and Lily's?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"What?" Remus asked, surprised with the abrupt subject change.

"Well, you were talking about Tonks and it got me thinking about where she was staying at and I think we should go show everyone you're ok and whatnot." he paused, "If you want, of course."

"Uh, sure." Remus said slowly "Just let me go get ready." With that he got up to change clothes and brush his teeth and hair.

Sirius had gotten ready earlier, so as soon as Remus was finished doing what he had to do they were ready to go.

xXx

It was almost four-thirty by the time they got to the house, and when Lily saw them she immediately bustled them inside and sat them down, sending concerned looks at Remus.

Everyone gathered in the living room and Lily went to make some tea while they made themselves comfortable.

"So how was last night?" James asked when everyone was settled.

Sirius and Remus unconsciously traded a glance before Remus spoke, "It was all right, not as bad as it could have been."

"Did you transform?" Lily asked curiously.

Again the two exchanged a glance, not sure if they should lie or not. Finally Sirius sighed and said, "Kind of."

"Kind of? What do you mean 'kind of'. You do or you don't." Tonks said.

Sirius mildly glared at her before he said, "You would understand the 'kind of' if you would let me explain."

Tonks looked a little put out but stayed quiet. Lily sent a soothing smile her way and James told Sirius to continue.

"Well," Sirius said and took a breath, "Remus didn't fully transform into a werewolf. He just got wolf-like characteristics, like elongated canines and ears and the like. He also got a lot of the instincts so it was...difficult."

There was a slight bout of silence before James said, "Wait, since it sounds like you were still mostly human, could you talk?"

"Yes," Remus said, "It was a little difficult at first, but I managed."

"So would really have been dangerous to stay?" Tonks asked, looking between the two men.

"It-well-I don't know." Sirius stuttered, sending Remus a pleading look.

"I think it might have been a little dangerous," Remus said, his face not telling anything, "I had enough trouble controlling myself with only one person present, I don't think I could have handled two."

James and Lily watched as Sirius face also turned suspiciously blank, and even Tonks looked curious.

"All right, I guess," she said, though she didn't look convinced.

"Are you going to stay for dinner?" Lily asked suddenly, startling everyone with the sudden subject change.

"I would love to, but I'm a little tired," Remus said, politely declining, "Maybe tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow would be a lot better," Sirius said loudly, and Remus gave him a look, causing him to shrink away.

Lily smiled and they worked out the arrangements before they said goodbye and Sirius and Remus left to go back home.

xXx

Sirius and Remus got home and ate a small dinner, but it was still too early to go to sleep. Instead Remus got a book to read in the living room. Sirius rummaged through his old room, but came back empty-handed apparently not finding what he had been looking for.

Remus noticed immediately when Sirius came out and curled up on the couch to apparently watch him. He looked over the top of his book and raised an eyebrow, but Sirius just shrugged so Remus just rolled his eyes before returning to his book.

Remus did his best to ignore him, but when Sirius started making kicked puppy noises he sighed deeply, putting a page marker in the book before all too patiently setting it on the table.

"What is your problem?"

"What?" Sirius asked, startled.

Remus growled, "Don't you have something better to do than sit there and fidget?" he asked shortly.

Sirius spluttered for a moment before he spoke, "What's your problem?" he asked defensively.

Remus bit back another growl and put a hand on his forehead. He took a couple deep breaths before he mumbled an apology.

Seeing the sudden change in his friends demeanor Sirius got up to sit next to him on the couch. "Sorry I was fidgeting, it was probably annoying. I was bored." He paused and then asked, "What's the matter?"

Dragging his hand down his face Remus put his elbow on his knee to support his chin in his hand. "Nothing," he muttered, but Sirius just looked at him.

Seeing what Sirius was trying to do Remus closed his eyes and leaned back, almost slumping on the couch. Thinking it over a moment while Sirius waited patiently Remus decided it was probably better if the other man knew what was going on.

Sirius silently congratulated himself in being able to coax almost anything out of his friend. He sat, expectant but patient, until Remus finally opened his mouth and said, "The wolf."

"What?"

"The wolf. He just got a taste of freedom and he wants more. His pestering is starting to give me a headache."

"The wolf can talk to you?" Sirius asked, one eyebrow raised.

Remus shook his head, trying to clear it. "Not exactly. It's just feelings, like how I get more anxious before the full moon. I'm pretty sure he can't make me change, but the pushing makes me act..._different_, sometimes."

There was silence and Remus fidgeted while Sirius thought the information he had just received over. "If you let him do what he wanted what you'd you end up doing?" Sirius asked quietly.

Remus thought about it a moment before he balked. "I have no idea," he said.

"You're lying. The wolf just magnifies basic desires, doesn't it?"

"I-I guess it might, a little." Remus said uncomfortably.

"That's interesting." Sirius said leaning forward to grab a book before sitting back to flip through it, seemingly ignoring the other man now.

Sirius looked out of the corner of his eye at the werewolf. He bit back a smile as he saw that his eyebrows were scrunched together and he had his mouth open a little, as if he was going to say something.

Looking at him, Sirius was sure he knew almost exactly what Remus was thinking. The fidgeting, the explosion, all those questions finally getting him to admit something, and then silence? Sirius saw the frustration grow on Remus' face and wasn't sure if he should start getting nervous or not.

"Sirius." Remus growled low in his throat, "You are very annoying." he said before launching himself at his target, tackling off the couch.

Sirius let out a small oof of air as he hit the floor on his back, Remus landing on top of him. The smaller man immediately sat up so he was sitting on Sirius, or more specifically, on Sirius' crotch area.

Remus let out a hiss as he wiggled a little before lowering himself down so he was chest-to-chest with the other man. He nibbled on Sirius' neck a moment before he looked up and Sirius noticed he had amber eyes.

"Moony, are you still in there?" Sirius called using the other man's nickname, and Remus shivered shaking his head, and when he looked at him again his eyes were back to normal.

Taking a deep breath he said, "Yeah, sorry." he moved up slowly, as if slightly intoxicated, and kissed Sirius.

Sirius relaxed into the kiss, but didn't really do anything to deepen it. After a moment Remus pulled back and looked Sirius in the eyes.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Sirius asked and Remus shrugged.

"Let me put it this way: I'm here enough to know that I'll never get your hands in my pants if I don't do anything to start it." Remus then continued into the shocked silence, "You're too considerate, Sirius." he smiled softly running a hand down the other mans cheek.

"Maybe I am a little too considerate, and by being that I'm a little _in_considerate." Sirius grinned and flipped them over while Remus was occupied with figuring out what he meant.

"Now I don't want you to forget those moral things you learned," Remus warned, grinning up at his friend.

Sirius chuckled and Remus decided that was an acknowledgement of his words before Sirius leaned down and kissed him. Remus immediately opened his mouth to allow the other mans tongue entrance, which Sirius complied. Sirius slowly moved a hand up Remus's shirt, and Remus startled them both by emitting a loud moan.

Sirius paused and pulled back to look down at Remus who flushed. Sirius just smirked and kissed him on the nose.

"You're so cute Remus." He smiled at him and kissed his lips softly.

"Sirius. Shut up." he replied with a sigh. Even so, he was still blushing. He leaned in to kiss Sirius again but was surprised when his lover pulled away. "What...?"

Sirius smiled. "Maybe we should relax for tonight. you're tired right?"

Remus groaned and ground his hips up, "Yes, I'm tired, but I would be frustrated if you just tried to go make me a cup of tea and send me to bed."

"Really frustrated?" Sirius whispered huskily after feeling the other mans arousal against him. "That would be inconsiderate, wouldn't it?"

Remus made an agreeing noise, his hips raising again as Sirius moved down, rubbing their crotches against one another. Remus hissed as Sirius popped open his pants, pushing them down and grabbing his erection causing him to gasp and arch more.

Sirius leaned down to kiss his lover again and Remus moved his hands so they were tangled in his hair. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, Sirius moved his hand stroking the hard shaft.

Remus moaned and moved his hips more, trying to get Sirius to move faster, but Sirius just held his hips down and moved to kiss him more, which wasn't entirely disagreeable.

After a couple moments Remus pulled back and whispered, "Sirius, come on, really do this."

Sirius tightened his grip a little causing Remus to gasp and arch against him and said, "All right, whatever you want." With that he leaned down again, kissing him and stroking him faster. Remus' breath shortened so it came in pants as he mumbled something incoherently before Sirius kissed him again.

Remus could feel his body tighten in preparation for release and tried to warn the other man but he couldn't really enunciate. "I'm-I-Ah!" Remus bit his lip to keep from screaming as he came.

Panting as he came down from his high Remus looked up at Sirius, his eyes still slightly glazed. Slowly he moved a hand so it was resting with slight pressure on the other man's crotch. He looked at him questioningly as he rubbed a little on the bulge there.

Sirius hissed in a breath, and Remus could see conflict on his face, and finally Sirius reached down and moved the other man's hand before getting off of him.

"What's wrong?" Remus said, casting a couple cleaning charms and fixing his clothes after a moment.

"Nothing."

"Seriously. Tell me." Remus said, his tone of voice changing and becoming more serious.

"I don't want to rush you."

Remus stood there gobsmacked. " Rush me? I started this!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know, but-" Sirius started but was cut off by Remus.

"There you are being too considerate again. What do I need to do to teach you that I'm not going to break to pieces if you touch me the wrong way?"

Sirius blew out a huff of air. "I know that."

"What about this being an 'equal relationship?'" Remus said, quoting some words Sirius had said earlier in the day, sitting up straighter on the floor.

Running a hand through his hair Sirius stood up, making Remus tilt his head back to still see his face. "It's equal enough for right now. I've pretty much killed the mood anyway, haven't I?" He asked, and when there was no reply he chuckled. "I'll take care of my not-so-little problem in a minute, if it's still there. You must be even more tired now anyway. Go to bed, I'll be there after awhile."

Remus reluctantly got up and went to take a short shower before brushing his teeth, trying not to think of what Sirius was most likely doing. He had seen the other man go into his old room right before he had gotten into the bathroom. By the time he was ready for bed he found himself yawning frequently, he hadn't realized how tired he actually was.

He turned off the lights and a couple minutes later Sirius padded into the room and curled up behind him, sighing into the back of his neck contentedly. Remus felt the other mans breathing even out, and was glad he could sleep so soundly and easily.

Remus found himself slightly anxious and unable to sleep readily although he was exhausted, much to his annoyance. He kept thinking about what had happened earlier and how different it had been from other similar experiences. How much better. He was also thinking about Sirius' meaning of 'equal relationship'. He felt like they were right on the edge, ready to fall over into something they would never get out of. He was excited, but wasn't entirely sure he wanted to fall that deep yet.

Slowly he fell into a restless sleep, thinking of the direction this relationship was sure to take him, and all the things they were sure to have to overcome before they could be together peacefully.

xXx

End Chapter Thirteen  
Aaand now I'm done editing my chapters. I got a couple minor ideas while re-reading this and maybe I'll write them down and something will come out of it. We'll see. Anyway, thank you everyone who has read this far and I hope you've enjoyed it!


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